


Negative delta is the beginning of fun

by LajtHane



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: A little bit of sexual harassment, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Not Beta Read, Slow Build, Some Cursing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 16:29:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 257,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7060441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LajtHane/pseuds/LajtHane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiccup thought that this day couldn’t get any worse. And there he was, in the boy’s bathroom, trapped with Dagur and the school’s prankster and star - Jack - who was claiming to be Hiccup’s boyfriend. And he only wanted to clean his sweater…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hooke's law

**Hooke’s law** \- The force - _F_ \- needed to extend or compress a spring by some distance - _x_ \- is proportional to that distance.

 

Since he woke up, everything told him that this would be a bad day.

So at first he didn’t quite hear his alarm. Let’s be serious, it happened few times in the past years (not many, but definitely some), so okay, that was maybe not normal, but still possible. Anyway, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad (it was only seventeen minutes) if he didn’t have test today in the first class. But unfortunately he had it, so when he opened his eyes and turned his head to stare at the clock (ringing proudly on the nightstand) he was quite… surprised and mad which resulted in him falling off the bed with a squeak (of course, very, very manly squeak). And this was only the beginning for Hiccup.

Then his hair didn’t want to be tamed by the mighty comb warrior, after that he burned his scrambled eggs (and in the end didn’t eat much in the morning, no muscles then, thank you), next he couldn’t find his favorite sweater (the one warm, fluffy with emblem of dragon on the chest). And please, not to mention when he finally found it, he saw a giant brown stain at the front (probably from the cocoa he had drank two days ago, bravo he).

Great, so let’s sum it up… tired, disheveled, hungry and uncomfortable. Just the oh-so-perfect morning for Hiccup.

So when he finally left his house in a rush, he was sure that this was one hella bad day and nothing could change his mind. Maybe one of the most terrible days in his life (he got already few, written in the memory and every other worse than the last).

And yeah, he quite confirmed his suspicions when he fell down on the straight road with no bumps, scrapped his elbow and cheek painfully.

“Oh great…” Hiccup mumbled, slowly rising up from greeting the ground with the strong hug. He lifted his hands and inspected the small red scratches on palms. They weren’t bleeding, maybe stung a little bit, but he could live with that.

His short legs moved quickly, but still he reached the school on the second bell and he had no time to go to his locker and gather things, so he moved immediately to the classroom. And of course this was one of the classes which he didn’t share with even one of his friends. Amazing…

With a loud sigh he scrambled to his seat (as far away from noisy people as possible) and sat, just in time for teacher to walk inside with a pile of white sheets.

Well he technically wasn’t late, so that was awfully nice of this day to not literally kick him in the shin.

The man at the front waited for minute or two for slackers and when the last person in the class walked inside, he closed the door (unnecessarily loud) and distributed sheets.

“No talking or cheating. You have time till the end of this class. Begin!”

Hiccup turned the paper around and stared at the first question. He learned quite a lot for this test, so he was pretty confident in his skills, until he saw the first question.

For fuck’s sake!

* * *

“I’m telling you Astrid, I’m cursed by the Gods today!”

“Uh huh, your spaghetti is definitely cursed, it looks like it’s moving…” The girl murmured, eyeing the pasta with furrowed eyebrows and mouth stretched in disgust.

Hiccup sighed and moved the plate away. It wasn’t like he was hungry anyway… hell, he was very hungry. And his father was curious why he never grew up (if maybe they had something edible here, then the reality would be different). Plus, disgusting lunch – check, another position on the list of what could go wrong today was filled and corrected.

“If I didn’t know you better I would think you didn’t care…” His hand reached for the shake standing in the corner of the tray. Maybe this will somehow move through his throat.

The blonde girl stared at the food for few more seconds (Hiccup maybe, just maybe, saw the spaghetti twitch. What was wrong with this school?), then shuddered heavily and turned her face to him.

“I care, but I know you long enough to know that this stuff just happens to you naturally.” Astrid said like it was the most normal thing in the world, then reached and grabbed few fries and threw them inside her mouth.

She wasn’t wrong per se, but it still wasn’t nice to hear. Especially today.

“Thank you for that positive observation.”

Astrid shrugged.

“I’m only stating the truth…”

Hiccup groaned, made small nest from his hands on the table and laid his head down. He knew he was a magnet for accidents, there wasn’t almost a day where he didn’t trip or fall down. But this didn’t mean he liked to be reminded of it on every step. It was his own Hiccup’s weirdness magnetic field.

Or it was just his life… He saw it in his mind, the cover of bestseller book, standing proudly on the shelf near every bookstores’ window - ‘The accident prone life of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third – volume fourteen’!

Astrid giggled suddenly (a sound so weird coming from her that Hiccup snapped his head up) and covered her mouth.

“But I see someone who can lift up your mood~” She almost sang the last part, as her fries pointed at something in the throng. Hiccup stared at the fry and turned his head to stare at the crowd that appeared (in Hiccup’s mind) from nowhere - like people suddenly integrated from thin air. Blink, they there are! But the standing proudly fry was pointed at something in the crowd.

Or, to be more precise, at someone.

Hiccup tried to turn around as less suspicious as he could, to not gather attention of people in the cafeteria. Well, he didn’t have to do that, as most of the were heads already turned around to stare at the people in the crowd.

And who were there? Of course, the most popular students in the entire school. And guess what? _He_ was also there. _He,_ that with one single twitch of his mouth could make Hiccup stomach twist and curl inside. _He,_ who can with single wave of hand send him crumbling down with weak knees. _He,_ who has the ability to make him jittering mess whenever he accidentally bumped into him in the corridor.

His name was…

“Jack!”

No, no, no, no, of course, that wasn’t his name. Please, be serious. Hiccup has standards!

But as soon as someone yelled this name, the said boy (tall with ocean of white strands standing in every direction like buoys on the stormy water) lifted his face and moved to this someone (that definitely yelled the boy name) and blocked Hiccup’s line of vision to stare obscenely at the person who made him feel like… this.

Weak – was the proper word to describe it all.

“Aster E. Bunnymund~” Whispered Astrid softly, awfully sweet and so girly. And uh oh, only hearing his name and Hiccup’s legs became jelly. Good thing he was sitting and not standing, because Astrid wouldn’t shut up about it for a month definitely.

“Shh, Astrid, what if someone will hear you…” He mumbled, but turned around.

The girl lifted one of her eyebrow and looked around. The boy did too. The seats nearest to them were empty, as well as most of this part of cafeteria, greeting them with not so-clean-white, free seats.

“Okay, you got the point, but still please don’t say it out loud…”

Astrid smirked, sending him this look. This look meant nothing good. Hiccup knew this look and didn’t like it.

“What? Afraid that he will hear it?”

Hiccup bit his lip, feeling his nerves being tickled in a way he knew he definitely didn’t like them being tickled.

“Actually you know, yeah? That is the whole idea of being quiet and keeping secrets to yourself?” His hand flew up and combed through the auburn hair, trying to push away the too long fringe from his eyes.

The girl rolled her eyes and moved to grab another fry from the package, but it looked like it was empty, as she slumped back with nothing in her hands.

“No worries. You know I won’t tell anyone…” She murmured after a while in weirdly sad voice.

Hiccup exhaled the air that got accumulated in his lungs through barely opened lips and hit the table with his head. Great, he somehow made this day even worse by bursting (quietly) in front of Astrid and accusing her of something he was sure she would never do.

“I know, I know.”

After that they didn’t speak for few minutes and Hiccup listened to noise of voices surrounding them. There weren’t many people near this table, but it was too loud in his opinion nevertheless. Even for the nerd section of cafeteria it was rather noisy lunch.

The crowd in the middle moved a little bit away and army of faithful fans followed them to the corner far away from them. Hiccup was incredibly happy and sad about it in the same time.

“Did you ever thought about maybe… telling him that?”

The small boy groaned and lifted his face at his friend. She was staring at him with half-smile - encouraging and kind.

“Erm, no?”

“Why not?”

Hiccup stared her right into those beautiful two pools of shining orbs and found no hesitation. She was serious, almost encouraging him to do it, but Hiccup had none of it now. Especially today. Besides, they talked about it like… bazillion times.

“Astrid, seriously, no…” He ran his hand through his hair once more, a nervous habit. “I mean w-what do you expect me to do? Just go to him and say ‘Hey I may have crush on you, so go out with me?’”

The girl put both her hands on the table and leaned.

“Yeah?”

Hiccup sighed seeing the serious look on her face.

“Then it isn’t happening.”

Astrid moaned and threw her body back, sitting hard on the seat that creaked under her.

“Why?” She asked, brushing furiously the fringe away from her eyes.

“Because for first – he doesn’t actually know me…” Hiccup started to be immediately interrupted by his friend.

“You talked once after this physic contest...”

“That was once and it don’t count as knowing someone. For second – this…” Here he wailed, remembering the person he wanted to mention. “…Jackson Overland is almost always with him. And for third! But not the last!” He leaned above the table.

Astrid moved closer.

“Oh boy…”

“I don’t even know if he swings that way…” His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, but he knew, even if Astrid didn’t hear him, she knew what he wanted to say.

And of course she did by the sudden slump of her arms and retreating form.

“It looks to me that you’re searching for excuses.”

The bell rang above their heads. Both automatically grabbed the trays and moved up from their seats. The girl was right next to him, as she circled the table.

“Maybe but I will not do it even if the Earth would crumble under my feet.”

“You’re such a drama queen…” Astrid spoke, but her voice held something amusing and kind. She then punched his arm when they both disposed the trays.

Hiccup chuckled, feeling a little bit lighter by leaving this topic behind. For now. But knowing Astrid it will soon return, like a boomerang. An unwanted one, very unwanted one.

“You know, someone needs to be~”

* * *

And when Hiccup was almost one hundred percent sure that this day couldn’t get any worse, he brushed the screen of his phone to two unread messages.

First one was from his Dad.

_I’ll be late. Don’t wait for me._

Just as he expected by the absence of the hulky man in the house this morning. He quickly replied with simple ‘okay’.

Maybe his father being away from home wasn’t totally bad thing. This way he could listen to music on full volume, while sitting in his room and making probably homework… or working on his robotic project that he really should start if he wanted to participate in the next contest his teacher told him about. Yeah, that could work, only him, Toothless and paper.

Their relationship nowadays wasn’t bad. It was almost better than ever. But it still was kind of uncomfortable. Hiccup was used to his Dad not talking a lot with him and especially not talking with him about things he liked. So now he quite didn’t know what to do when his Dad was asking him about important for Hiccup things.

Another message was from Astrid.

_Ugh, my coach wants something from me. Don’t wait, probably will take a lot of time D:_

Well this one made him feel a little sad. The auburn haired boy enjoyed walking home with his best-friend (not counting probably the weirdest cat on the entire Earth) but well… He could do nothing about it. Few times he also had to call Astrid so she wouldn’t be waiting for him as some teachers wanted to talk with him.

Nevertheless it wasn’t a nice feeling. He actually wanted to walk home with someone.

Hiccup opened his locker and grabbed few textbooks that he might need later that day.

“Okay, biology… chemistry and…” His eyes looked inside to spot a huge book crushed under a pile of white sheets. “There it is!”

With one hand holding the stock and another holding the book he tried to slowly, delicately take it out. But hey, it wasn’t his lucky day, so when his mouth turned into victorious smirk, the corner of the said book hit a bottle with a blue paint (the one he told himself hundred times to bring back home).

Hiccup should know that the probability of this happening was maybe not exactly one, but the limes approached it quite fast.

He yelped as he loosed grip on the book and tried to catch the small, plastic bottle, which resulted in him squishing it between small palms to a point of cap snapping open and spraying all of the inside onto his arm, sweater and face.

Added point – bonus! - his book fell down and few sheets ran away, down the corridor.

“Great, just great…”

He sighed and looked inside the bottle to see that there was not much liquid left. Now there was no point in keeping it in school, so he threw it out and started to gather books and papers, trying not to left stains on them.

“I should clean it a little, before it totally dries…”

With his backpack on the arm, he moved to the nearest bathroom (that finally, fortunately was just around the corner), where Hiccup left his bag in the corner and took off sweater, moving to the sink. It was hard to find the correct position of tap between the ‘hella-hot’ and ‘freezing-to-death’, so he opted on ‘almost-burning-your-skin’ as his hands started to brush the material with the remains of school’s soap.

Hiccup didn’t even want to count failures that happened to him today. He knew that some days of his life were particularly bad, but hello, he had bad day last week and thought that maybe the Gods would spare him till next month. But it looked that the small boy wasn’t in their favor.

And his life was slowly moving onto right tracks.

“Splendid, I guess what still can happen to me today…”

And it felt like someone heard him and decided to meet the demand on the highest level, because as soon as those words left his dry lips, the doors to the bathroom swung open and someone walked inside.

“Oh, Hiccup I was searching for you.”

The said boy groaned, loudly, very loudly, theatrically and turned around.

This day couldn’t get any worse. And yet here he was!

* * *

Great, Jackson Overland…

_‘If you get another F on your next test you can say goodbye to passing this year, Mister Overland…’_

The words echoed in his head. It was a ball jumping, hitting every possible wall, loudly and coming back stronger.

Usually his grades didn’t affect him. He wasn’t some nerd that hide his nose in books all the time. Well, don’t get the wrong impression, Jackson was smart (and he totally could understand that science or learning was someone passion). Only he was a little bit… okay, very lazy. Guess it was a two-edged sword.

But this was something of a higher caliber, something that was making him nauseous. Because he got himself into some mess, a giant pile of tangled mess. He knew that learning wasn’t coming easy for him, only he didn’t know it was THAT bad.

And it looked like it was very bad.

The boy slowly walked away from the class where he was informed about his miserable situation. His steps echoed in the empty corridor. It felt unnatural walking around it now, so late and he wanted nothing more than to leave this institution. Yeah, leave this building, cradle himself into fort made of quilt with his pad and games. And maybe Aster and Tooth on skype.

_‘Maybe you need someone who will help you learn? I know few people that could… put something into this brain of yours…’_

Oh, he definitely remembered how hard he had gritted his teeth and denied the request. He won’t be pitied by some teacher. He was almost an adult, he can find himself someone who will help him in this situation.

“It isn’t so bad…” The boy mumbled to himself as he stopped and lifted the paper so he was able to read some of the comments written in red all over the sheet.

But indeed it was.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so devastating if he actually hadn’t learned for this test. But he had, he spent quite a lot of time reading, making exercises and thinking over questions. Jack had felt prepared for it.

And it wasn’t enough.

“Man…”

Was he so useless?

“How can I show this to my Dad…?” The murmur left his lips and it dissolved into the air, leaving only dry tongue. He took off his backpack, unzipped it and smashed the sheet inside, not feeling like staring at it any longer. “He will be so bummed over it…”

He sighed and ran his hand through white hair surrounding his head. Fingers caught one especially pissing flock and brushed it.

Till now this day was going almost nicely. He added almost, because well… it would be good if he wouldn’t count that girl.

Heather was her name. And at first she was nice, kind, gave those kind of warm vibes (like the one Tooth always smashed people with) and Jack really enjoyed spending time with her. As friends! But well, the problem was that she wanted something more than that and Jack… didn’t. So he tried to persuade it to her as gently as he could, but it looked like she didn’t get a hint and still clang onto him like he was some kind of lifebuoy. And it may… kind of… got on his nerves. Okay, it was totally pissing him off. But as mad as he was, he couldn’t do more than repeat that they were only friends and hope that she would finally understand.

Yet it looked like Heather’s ears were blocker for that. Huh, good for him.

But not counting Heather holding onto him on lunch for dear life this day was statistically good. And not summing the test, which was a very bad element. And coming back to the topic of test… Maybe he should call Tooth or Bunny? They were pretty smart, right? On the second thought they were terrible in tutoring. He asked Bunny once and Jack had been forced to fly from the house after half an hour and with Tooth… It was easier, but she had no gift of explanation. The time they had spent learning was actually full of talking and eating cookies.

So yeah, no friends in tutoring.

Did he know some other people who were smart? Well, he knew few but they weren’t talking a lot, yet, if maybe he would ask this girl that sat next to him on physics…

“Can you just please leave me alone?”

Jack lifted his head. The voice didn’t sound pretty familiar, yet he had a feeling he definitely heard it somewhere.

And it got him quite interested.

He looked around, but the corridor was empty, with only light keeping him company (but even few bulbs were blinking furiously now). Maybe he overheard something or his mind was playing tricks on him? That was totally possible.

He made another step forward, to stop midway as another voice chimed in:

“Why should I?”

Oh this voice, he knew it better. But who didn’t? And let me tell you, this voice didn’t bring anything good with it. It was destruction that followed it, walking in the same line with fear and madness.

It looked like someone was in trouble.

Jack head snapped up. The sound were coming from the boy’s bathroom. The door were slightly ajar.

He could simply pass this door and walk out and away from this building to forget about it all. He could do it, but hey… where Dagur was, then there were definitely problems. And Jack didn’t want to have some miserable soul on his conscience. This was probably a bad idea, but well… here he was, moving slowly to the small gap between the door and wall to look at what exactly was happening.

Dagur – the mighty teenager was looming over someone and even Jack, from his position far away, felt bad for the person trapped between Dagur’s arms. His face was twisted into smirk and eyes shone in the dim light, twinkling with some animal need.

Yep, it looked bad. Jackson Overland should totally turn around and go away. Yet he couldn’t. He turned to look at the victim that leaned above the sink, trying to get as far away as possible.

The first thing he recognized was definitely the hair and freckles. Brown wisps intertwined with faint highlights covered half of his face. But even they couldn’t hide the small brown dots scattered on furiously red skin.

They reminded him of something, or more like someone…

The boy turned a little and bit his lip, backing his head to this point it almost hit the mirror behind him.

“Can you let me go?” The voice was incredibly strong, coming from the small boy in that situation and Jack felt kind of amazed by the power it held. Not until he heard a low stutter at the end, a small turn down of the volume and then a yelp. “Like right now?”

Dagur’s lips twitched and stretched even more, showing the line of sharp fangs. Jack didn’t like the look he was giving the other boy. It meant nothing good. Just like whole Dagur.

And then Jack’s eyes landed down.

Dagur was holding onto boy’s hand which was placed on Dagur’s groin.

Jack felt like vomiting. His stomach rose higher inside his throat and he had to take a deep breath to really not let anything out. What kind person would do that!? It’s humiliating! His mind couldn’t comprehend that this was actually happening, in front of his very own eyes.

The boy’s head snapped up, as his hand was pushed forward and his teeth bit harder into his bottom lip.

“How about ‘no’?”

If Jack hated something really hard in this world, it was definitely bullying. But this… this was beyond understanding. This could be subsumed under sexual assault.

And it was getting even worse.

Jack was probably crazy. Aster had told him this so many times, that the number could cover the entire walls in his school. And maybe he was crazy, mad, weird (and all those other words similar to them), but when someone was in danger he had to help. This was what people should do.

So Jack stood up, straightened his body, trying to get bigger and pushed open the door, walking inside.

When he felt the furious eyes on him, he barely resisted the shiver running down his spine. The saliva barely ran through his throat. For a second time stopped.

And then Jack heard himself speaking:

“Would you mind letting him go?”

His voice doddered, stumbled and he hoped that no one heard that. And darn, his heart felt like it was on fire, burning, trembling. It hurt. He never felt like that. Or at least he didn’t remember the last time he was like that.

The auburn haired boy turned his head, directing his eyes at Jack. Two beautiful stains, lush, livid, alive, like the colors of a forest, full of magic. He could almost see the ray of sunshine shimmering between leaves.

_‘You know, the one with the weird nickname…?’_

But now they were darkened by the gust of fear and concern.

And Jack straightened his posture. Here goes nothing.

Dagur stared at him with fury playing on his forehead and eyebrows. His fingers (still latched onto boy’s hand) relaxed and tensed alternately – and for brief second Jack hoped that he would back off.

“Why?”

That was a good question and if maybe they all had some more time he would literally elaborate a full lecture about factors fighting against that kind of behavior. But they didn’t have a full hour and a half, nor were in comfortable chairs.

Jack never felt the pressure of running time as much as now.

“Because…” He licked his lips.

His eyes wandered to the face of the victim, trying to search for something, some small clue that would help him, but the boy only shook his head slowly - left-right-left.

Then it clicked inside his head.

“Because he is my boyfriend, so I don’t want anyone else touching him…” He said it slowly, steady, even though he was shaking inside.

Don’t judge him, it was the only thing he was capable of thinking right about now. But as soon as those words left his mouth, he knew he made some kind of mistake, error and he was almost sure he heard a sound of it somewhere in his head. A loud beep in his ears.

The boy’s eyes widened and lips partly opened, taken aback by that (Jack couldn’t really blame him, he still wasn’t sure what the heck happened) and Dagur was…

Well, to say that he was not pleased would be a very delicate way to say that he looked angry as fuck.

The red-haired teenager stood up (moving few inches away from the boy which he took with a little sight of content) and glared at Jack.

“And he is?” Hissed Dagur.

Trick question, yet nevertheless a very good one.

Jack really wanted to correct his hair, to run his fingers through them, to lose the stress building up in his muscles, but knew better not to do that.

It felt like some kind of movie, like he was playing a main role in some kind dumb chick flicks that he often watched with Tooth (because she loved them). And Jack remembered - oh so well - when characters were in similar situation and of course, he remembered as he was screaming at TV, yelling advices, trying to push the characters in good direction. But no one was helping him now. Not to mention it was a reality.

He gulped down. His throat and mouth were dry as Sahara desert. This miserable imitation of plan was crumbling down even before it was able to be fully made.

Dagur’s eyes almost drilled holes inside of him, nudging to give the answer to his question and Jack relaxed and clenched his fists once again. The rock bottom was just in front of his eyes.

_‘The short one? I’m almost sure I heard Astrid call him…’_

And suddenly the boy squealed, barely parting his lip. The sound was a little bit muffled, like he wanted to prevent it from happening. Yet the boy’s eyes were focused on Jack, sending silent message, a small plead.

The sound felt familiar.

Dagur turned around, returning to stare at the auburn haired boy and he was about to open mouth to say something, before Jack gasped.

Everything clicked in his brain.

“H-hiccup!” Both people in front of him froze. His heart hammered in his ears, muffling all sounds. It was only unsteady rhythm of his heart. Yet it looked like screaming this name wasn’t enough as the taller teenager only sent him a questioning look, so Jack corrected himself. “Hiccup is my boyfriend.”

The white haired boy narrowed his gaze as crazy emerald irises met his own blue ones.

“You?” He asked, disbelieve dripping from his voice. “And him?”

“Yeah. Me and him.” Jack said, slowly, steady, but still tried to put some warm touch to it, to feel believable. It should be over soon. Just few more minutes or even seconds and they all would be free to go. “So can you let him go? We are already late…” For what he didn’t know.

Two more breaths, two longest breaths of his life and Dagur finally, terribly apathetically, stepped away, eyeing him suspiciously.

The boy’s palm dropped down, like it was made from straw.

Jack moved forward, but before he was able to get close to the boy, Dagur grabbed his arm. For brief second Jack though that he would break it and judging by the strong grip, he would do it quite easily. But fortunately for him, it didn’t happen.

“I’ll see about that…” Was the low whisper, a growl that he heard near his ear. The last message.

And with that Dagur left the bathroom.

It felt like years before Jack was finally able to exhale air that got collected inside his lungs. His hands finally moved to his forehead, where he brushed away the fringe. It was a little bit wet. But so were his palms. And his whole body.

He should say something, right? Something to straighten the topic, clear the incomprehensibilities, explain himself. But nothing wanted to come out of his mouth.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know?”

Jack blinked two times, to clear his hazed mind and register what he actually heard. And when he did, he nodded and smiled hesitantly.

“I know.” He moved, leaned on the sink, putting his weight on the feet as not to destroy the porcelain bowl. “It still came better than expected, don’t you say?” Okay, his voice was returning to normal, so were jittering of his hands.

Jack looked at the victim.

The boy rolled his eyes. For someone who was sexually assaulted not few minutes ago the boy acted really… sassy and sarcastically.

“Yeah, it went splendidly.” The smaller teen scoffed.

And well… Jack expected to be shown quite bigger amount of gratitude than the miserable imitation of it given to him till now. Not that he expected the boy to hug him and offer gold (or rare armor), but something more warm would be nice.

The boy moved to the sink, turned the tap on and poured a giant pile of soap onto right palm. Or at least what was rest of the soap.

“It could’ve gone worse.” Jack retorted, staring as the boy brushed furiously his hands under the water. The anger was slowly rising inside of him, but he tried with all his might to push it deeper inside. This wasn’t how he expected the explanation to go.

“It could’ve gone a lot better either…” The boy whispered and it took all the white haired teenager’s willingness to not just jump at him and strangle him right here, right there. Okay, maybe his plan was dumb, but it got Dagur away, so what was his problem?

So Jack opened his mouth to probably say something not-so-nice that could count as a yell or curse, but was stopped by the gaze of viridian eyes directed at him.

“Listen, I’m sorry…” The boy murmured whipping his hands on the trousers. “It’s just my whole day was shit and then Dagur appeared when I thought that it couldn’t get any worse, so well… yeah I was… am a little bit mad.” His hand travelled to his face, where he moved the fringe away. “I shouldn’t push it on you. It was still nice of you to help me, so thanks...” There was a sigh. “…Although you could have come with a different plan than blurting you’re my boyfriend.” The smirk thought soothed Jack’s inside beast.

But the drum, a whisper inside his head didn’t want to quiet down, so he voiced his question.

“Does Dagur do that…. Pretty often?”

Those eyes blinked, once, twice, arms moved in a shrug.

“Quite a lot.”

“Oh…” Very smart. Jack cleared his throat. “I heard that he had his eyes on someone…”

The boy chuckled, but it was lifeless, didn’t hold the energy, the fun it should. And after what Jack saw he couldn’t quite blame him right now.

“Yeah, the poor person is me.” The corners of boy’s lips twitched. “So thank you one more time… err Jack I suppose?”

Jack blinked and laughed, feeling the old happy tune ringing back in his ears. He removed his hand from the pockets and showed one to the boy.

“Yes, the one and only Jackson Overland.”

The smaller teenager a little bit hesitantly clenched Jack’s hand and slowly shook it.

“Hamish Horrendous Haddock the Third…” Jack snickered and his companion rolled his eyes, probably used to this by now. “But as you guessed right, I come with a nickname of Hiccup…”

Their hands disconnected and with a nudge of Jack’s head, showing direction to the door, they both turned.

“I knew I recognized you from somewhere. You’re that kid that won that Inter-School Physics Contest last month, right?”

The boy – Hiccup – nodded, grabbed his backpack and… sweater (at least it looked like a sweater, a very wet one) from the floor and gathered it in his arm.

“Yep…” He popped the ‘p’ letter quite loudly. “That’s me.”

They walked through the dark, empty corridors, moving to the front entrance that shimmered in the distance like a light at the end of a black tunnel. Jack welcomed the cold touch of a handle with sigh, as he pushed the door and walked out.

It was chilly outside, even quite cold for anyone that wasn’t Jack.

Hiccup took the chance and slipped past him. He unzipped his backpack, threw the sweater inside and put it on his back.

“Won’t you be cold in only that?” Jack pointed, staring at the bare arms covered in freckles. He himself liked cold, even preferred the freezing wind over warm sun, but well… this was him, the Spirit of Winter (as once Bunny called him, when he saw Jack walking out into snow in only sweatpants and t-shirt). For everyone else it was probably deathly cold outside.

The boy massaged his arm, trying probably to warm them and sooth the last pinch of nerves still straining his body.

“I’ll be fine. It is only like twenty minutes’ walk.”

Jack hummed, didn’t really convinced by that.

“Sorry for asking, but why won’t you use that sweater in your backpack?”

Hiccup shrugged as they stepped down the stairs, next to each other.

“I spilled my blue paint on it.” He said, hands playing with the hem of the shirt. “I was in the middle of cleaning it in the bathroom when Dagur walked in.”

Well, the auburn boy was right when he said that today was his bad day then.

They walked for few meters in silence that hugged them tightly and a little bit… weirdly. It felt like a hug from some kind of aunt that you saw only once in your life, when you were just a toddler. Uncomfortable. But what did Jack expect? They were two people that didn’t even known each other.

“Hey, do you think… Dagur bought your lie?”

Jack scratched the back of his head, combing his hair a little in that place. But even though the will, the rebellious strands stood in every direction, so he gave up on them.

“Well to tell the truth I doubt it… I took quite a lot of time to answer all his question…” The laugh escaped his lips. “It looks easier from the other side of the TV.”

Hiccup didn’t comment it, but only rose his eyebrow high on the freckled forehead. But the quick twitch of lips that followed confirmed that he understood what Jack meant.

“Let’s assume for now that he bought it. Do you think, if he really believed it, that he will spill it out to the entire school?” Jack coughed and brought back that topic again. There were still few things that needed to be solved and this was one of them.

“I’m not sure... Maybe not – because this way he would be hitting on someone taken or maybe yes – to check if that was true. He is deranged, so I wouldn’t be surprised with anything he did.” Hiccup spoke slowly, stopping few times, like he had to catch his flow of thoughts. “Either way, I don’t really care too…”

“What?!” Jack couldn’t believe it. “You don’t care if someone call you the boyfriend of the most popular and, not to mention, the hottest guy at school?” He touched his chest and made a pout, trying to look like a sad puppy. “You wound me!”

Those weren’t his words, it was only things that he heard flowing around the school and internet and hey, he was kind of proud of it. At least his look wasn’t a mess. One good thing in his life… yay.

The boy stared at him, amusement playing in his orbs.

“Yes, I don’t care. Sorry but not all fall for looks and popularity…” Ouch, he hit the point and something twisted inside Jack’s chest, but he brushed that feeling quickly away, not allowing it to crumble the smirk still dancing on his lips.

But nevertheless Hiccup was right. Jack met many people that wanted to be with him just because he was handsome and quite good in sports (both of the traits got him popular around school. Why? He had no idea, this was a total mystery) and he denied all of them. Yet there was something different in hearing it and knowing it himself.

Especially from such a nerd.

“Not to mention there are some people more good-looking in our school than you.”

Now, this was crossing the line!

“Like who?” Jack asked, trying to hide the curiosity in his voice. He was just interested in it, there was no second reasons behind asking it.

Hiccup stopped moving and lifted his head to stare at him. Well, now Jack finally noticed that Hiccup was really short. Jack wondered if the boy’s neck hurt from staring up so many times to actually look into someone eyes while holding a conversation.

“What? You need to get dispose of the competition?”

Jack chuckled. Okay, this was a good one.

“Maybe…” He answered hoping to sound as evil as he could.

Hiccup rolled his eyes, still with that smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. His hands massaged bare arms that shivered whenever wind brushed past them.

“I’m turning here. Thank you one more time for helping.” Then he shrugged. “You’re not as bad as I thought you were.”

What?

“And what does it mean?”

“Nothing.” Hiccup chirped quickly and then turned around, waving his hand. “See you maybe somewhere around the school.”

Jack was just about to start this wonderful journey to his home as the corner of his eyes caught the sigh of Hiccup trembling more heavily and massaging his arms as he slowly crossed the street. It was quite the cold day anyway.

He really blamed his kind soul for this, as he quickly get rid of his favorite blouse and squeezed it into a tight ball. Karma better be working in this world.

“Hiccup!” The said boy turned around when he stopped on the small island in the middle of the street. “Catch!”

With one strong swing, Jack threw the blouse that hit Hiccup right in the face. Yeah, the auburn haired boy said something about bad luck he had following him that day.

“Don’t catch a cold!”

Jack turned on his heels quickly and ran to his house.

* * *

“Astrid you just wouldn’t believe what happened to me today!”

“You got a boyfriend?”

If there was a possibility of killing via phone then Astrid would drop dead on the other side right here, right there.

Hiccup sighed and leaned on his wall, holding his cellphone with one hand. The second one wandered through the quilt, following the grated patter on it.

“Unfortunately no…”

“Aster asked you out?” Astrid nudged, rising her voice a little and Hiccup was almost sure he could see the girl lifting her eyebrows.

“Still no…”

Although that would be very nice. Like incredibly amazing, just imagining it made him curl inside and want to scream, yell and shout (mostly from excitement). Those emerald eyes looking at him, so sincere, so pure, warm, kind and happy, with a light hidden inside of it, like orbitals f pushed deep inside under other shells. But the energy was still there, emitting those warm waves*…

What would he do to see it, hear this voice and maybe… just maybe touch boy’s hand?

“Dagur left you alone?”

Hiccup coughed, feeling that he might just a little bit flew away for few second. But hey, thinking about your crushes make you do things like that (at least he hoped so, if not then he had some kind of weird flu). But coming back to the conversation.

“Unluckily no… wait I mean yes… kind of…”

There was a pause from the other side and when he was almost sure that the connection got cut (he moved the device further away to check it, the line was still there), he heard the loud shriek:

“What?!” Typical Astrid. Then after a while she added, more quietly and steady. “What happened?”

So Hiccup told her everything, from the very beginning of opening the locker till the… very end. Very, very end. He spared no details - his hand still felt a little bit dirty.

“And then he just threw his blouse at me and went away.” His eyes wandered to the chair, or to be more precise to the blue material hanging on it. Hiccup just put it there, when he returned.

The bed creaked as the giant, fluffy, ebony creature jumped on it.

“Wait, when you said Jack you meant Jackson Overland as… him?” The girl on the other side shuffled away somewhere, maybe went under the cover, Hiccup wasn’t sure.

The cat trotted to him and nudged his hand, which he raised a little and moved down, when his friend accommodated beneath it. Just the perfect place for scratching, so Hiccup did follow his friend order.

“Yes, him.” The palm stroked the ear that twitched under the touch. “Unfortunately…”

“Wow, I thought that those things just happens in dumbs movies…” Astrid huffed. “The one, you know, where this girl is saved by the boy and then they fall in love and…”

“Yes, Astrid I know!” The cat wheezed when fingers scratched too close to the belly and Hiccup quickly rejected his limb. He learned well over the years to not to do that.

“But you… aren’t together… right?” Ugh, that tone, a little suspicious, surprised and maybe hopeful (but for totally different matter, Hiccup didn’t hear it or his mind blocked it for him). But the only thing that the brain registered were words.

“Fuck no!” Only thinking about it made him shiver with disgust.

Let’s clear few things. Jackson Overland wasn’t bad looking or ugly, no, no of course not. Hiccup would almost say that, yeah, he was handsome (as handsome as almost eighteen years old boy can be). He could understand why girls fawned over him, he could see the assets that made him count as ‘catching the eye’. Yeah, he had a nice catching eyes, with electric blue hint and maybe the warm smile wasn’t so bad too (there were some things off, like for example his ears were quite big and legs unnaturally long but it looked good on him).

So yeah, Jackson was good-looking, but in the most popular way. The way when girls sigh in nights thinking about their favorite actors, imagining them looking at them or talking or… whatever girls do at nights… in their dreams… with their crushes.

But being handsome in biological way wasn’t enough for Hiccup. So Jack looked good, so what? Maybe his life will be easier at some parts because of it, or maybe it will be a pain in the ass. Who can guess? The looks wasn’t important.

So he shivered in disgust not because of the looks of the certain boy, but well… simply let’s say that until few hours ago he quite didn’t like Jack - maybe because he only blocked him the view of the certain Australian boy - and talking with him for only few minutes didn’t really affected the assessment.

So yeah, still neutral. Bonus points – he preferred someone else, so yeah that could be the case of wry assessment.

“Okay, so that cleared out…” Astrid sighed. “What do you think Dagur will do then?”

And let’s come back to the harsh parts.

“This is what I’m not sure about… I really hope he would leave me alone but it feel too…” He snapped his fingers searching for words. He had this uncomfortable feeling slowly growing in the bottom of his stomach that promised nothing good.

“Easy?”

“Yes, too easy.” Toothless opened one of his eye, when Hiccup’s hand stopped stroking the fur. “But I meant about the fake dating. I don’t really think he believed him. Heck, I wouldn’t believe him. His acting was terrible.”

And indeed it was. Maybe Hiccup wasn’t an actor, nor he ever played in school plays but Jack acting was just… the worst.

“But he wanted to help.”

“This is what I’m grateful for.” Hiccup corrected the phone that tried to run away from its position, crushed between his arm and ear. “I really am, but… you know how in these dumb movies this accident always mess up the plot in the middle?”

Astrid chuckled, not the forced chuckle, not the strong one, nor powerful that shows who is the boss here, but the soft one, a little bit unsure. The nice way, where the dimples are visible, with a nice shadow casting over cheeks.

“Oh yeah, I know. Are you afraid that something similar would happen to you?”

Bingo.

“Yep, I’m almost sure something like that will happen. You know I’m magnet for that kind of thing. Like problems are a north side and I am south, or cation and anion, or electrons and free spaces in orbitals or mesons – “

“Woah, woah stop right there! I’m off school I don’t need to hear more of that nerd shit.”

Hiccup smiled. He loved doing that. Well, most of the time it wasn’t intentional, it’s just his brain was a little bit messed up by now.

But yeah, he almost knew that this was a beginning of something big and probably not something quite nice. He knew that his life lately was to… swimmingly good to be true.

Toothless lifted his face as the doors on the first floor barged open, hitting probably the opposite wall (and the auburn haired boy could almost see the flowers in living room shuddering at that impact) and then he heard his father shout:

“Hiccup, com here for a sec!”

Well this didn’t sound good.

“I need to go. I’ll talk to you later.” He moved from the bed in the same time as his trusty companion.

“Uhuh, bye!”

And with quick click Hiccup ended the call.

He walked slowly downstairs, holding onto rail for dear life (he slipped on those wooden panels so many times, that he lost track of the number, but learned his lesson). His father was definitely in the kitchen, judging from the sweep of light blinking on the floor in the connected living room.

And indeed he was there, putting away groceries, humming something under his giant nose.

“You wanted something?” Hiccup asked as bulky man was putting the eggs on one of the shelves in the fridge.

The man turned around and clasped together now freed hands.

“Yes, yes, yes Hiccup.” He smiled and the fury red mustaches twitched. “I brought them for you!”

Hiccup blinked, confused at that statement. He sat on the chair and put his elbows on the counter.

“Brought what?” He asked, not really understanding what the other meant.

“Your glasses of course!”

Oh no. Now it was complete. His full transformation, his evolution, it was done. Now he will be hyper nerd.

Hiccup fumbled with the sleeves of his sweater, observing as his father moved to the one bag and took out brown case, still humming some song.

“Here it is.” He said as he pushed the case in Hiccup’s tiny palms.

“Thanks…”

Stoick nodded, probably not even conscious of mixed feelings sweeping from his son.

“Dinner will be in an hour.”

The auburn-haired boy tightened his grip on the package and ran to his room, where he jumped back on the bed.

Don’t get him wrong. The short view was lately pissing him off (not to mention his eyes hurt from squinting them so hard, to see what was on the blackboard) so he was grateful that at least one of his problem was off the hook. It just… well, now he will even look like some smartass. Greaaat.

His hand slowly unlocked the case and took hold of the thick frames. With a last, long breath, he put the red glasses on.

And he sighed in content, when the view became more focused and clear. There was no more blurred spaces, no more unseen letters, and definitely no more missed details. It kind of felt like seeing something for the first time, even if this was his own room. Did he really have so many books? Was his quilt so detailed? Was there so many buildings visible from his window?

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad anyway.

Toothless meowed. Hiccup turned to him, smiling sheepishly. The cat tilted his head to the side and swished his tail.

“Wow, you’re so…” The boy giggled. “Not blurred!”

The cat moved his whiskers, then curled around, laying down on the bed, probably intending to fall asleep. He wasn’t interested in Hiccup’s new look.

Hiccup moved from the bed and walked to the bathroom, exiting his room, curious how he looked (he tried them on at the oculist, but it was some time ago, and he forgot how he looked).

And one word fitted him just right when he saw his own reflection.

Nerd. Uncollated hair, standing in every direction, a lot of freckles, dotting his skin like ink, button nose, crooked front teeth and now big eyes, hidden behind red-framed glasses. Typical book nerd. Give him only flannel shirt and then he was one hundred percent perfect.

He sighed, exited the bathroom and as soon as he entered his room, he caught his phone and send a quick message:

_‘My transformation is complete D:’_

* * *

The honk coming from the outside first thing in the morning wasn’t a good sign. Well maybe it wasn’t the first thing, because Jack was already in his clothes and munching slowly on toast, but well… the loud sound was still unpleasant to his ears.

His father was already on his feet as he glanced at the front door.

“It looks like your ride is here, tak?”

Jack nodded - the movement resulted in his nose hitting the butter on the toast, which he quickly brushed away with his hand. He scrambled up, gathered his things and stopped as his hands tried desperately to catch that familiar cloth that really should just hung on the hook.

Jack blinked, noticing the absence of his blue blouse. Well, he hoped that Hiccup would bring him his clothe back at school as he exited his house with nothing on.

“I’m going!” He shouted, turning around and waving at the bulky man with frosty beard standing at the counter and cutting something.

The man waved back, still with knife in big hand.

“Have a good one!”

Jack nodded and jumped out, closing the door maybe too loud for his neighbors comfort.

The car was already there. Even from few meters away Jack could see tall boy tapping rapidly the steering wheel in annoyance.

He quickly walked around, opened the door and sat in the front seat.

“You couldn’t be slower, right?” Aster grumped, glancing at him, but changing the gear nevertheless.

“Aww you know I’m a heavy sleeper. It is a miracle I still wasn’t late to practice this year!” Jack said, grinning and fastening seatbelts. His backpack was standing between his legs.

“Yeah, thanks to me…” The taller boy mumbled and stopped the car on the lights. His one hand travelled to gray hair and pushed some fringe away from the forehead. “Maybe it’s not my problem, but where is your blouse?”

Jack shrugged. That was quite predictable that his best-friend (but no one can say that to Aster) would see that one giant difference.

“It’s a…” Long, strange, stupid, crazy, unbelievable? “…weird story…” Yeah, that worked too.

Aster looked at him for a brief second, his green eyes sparkling in confusion and interest. Good thing that Aster was such a good driver, because if this would be anyone different Jack would be praying for his life.

“Care to elaborate?” He switched on the turn signal and started to turn the steering wheel.

“Okay.” Jack actually wanted to talk about it. Well, Aster really was his best friend (no matter how weird that sounded), not to mention he was smart (but Jack would never admit that to his face) and often pulled him out from the mess Jack jumped into. “But don’t yell!” Just to be sure.

“Ooo I don’t like that already, mate…”

One deep breath and go.

“So you remember as yesterday I stayed a little bit longer, right?” Aster nodded, his eyes focused on the road, but Jack knew he was listening. “And when I was walking out of the school building I heard some talking coming from the bathroom.”

The taller one lifted his eyebrow.

“And I found Dagur harassing some boy there…” Jack shook his head remembering the situation he had walked into. “So I felt bad for him and tried to help him somehow…” He prolonged the last word. Ugh, thinking about telling it and actually telling it were two different things. Not to mention Aster quite often jumped to conclusions.

And Aster immediately caught it. Damn.

“I don’t like it.”

Jack chuckled, his hand travelling to run his finger through barely made hair, standing in every direction. He didn’t quite understand why he was suddenly so nervous. He didn’t do anything bad, right? Maybe made some bad decisions, well that situation could have been resolved in different way, but hey! Blame too much movies for that. And his damn nerves.

“And I may have said that I’m this boy boyfriend…”

“Oh my God…” Aster whined as he turned and drove onto the school’s parking, suddenly very unsteady.

There wasn’t many cars nor bikes as it was pretty early, so the boy parked in his usual spot, under the tree, not too far away from the entrance to the Gym.

Aster turned off the engine. Jack exited the car as fast as he could, probably to run away from the preach that would definitely happen, but to no avail as his friend was right on his heels.

“And what happened then?”

Jack tried to put his hands inside pockets, but they didn’t found the comforting warmness, nor any type of friction, so they ended inside pockets of his brown trousers.

“Dagur left and we went out of school.”

“Okay, this story have so many holes, my mind can’t comprehend it…” Aster said and sighed. “So for first, why exactly you don’t have your blouse, because it is still a mystery?”

“Well this boy was in the bathroom because he spilled some paint on his sweater and was in the middle of washing it when Dagur came. So I lent him mine because it looked like he was really cold.”

“Okay, so that’s out of the way. Next one, Dagur just left, just like that?”

Jack nodded and corrected the strip on his arm, because his backpack felt like it could fall any second and ran away from him.

“Yeah, weird right?”

Actually, Jack spent quite some time in the evening reliving that day over and over in his head. Or to be more precise - that afternoon. He was thinking about other ways he could use to save the boy – Hiccup – and he came to conclusion that he took… maybe not the worst, but the second worst. Okay, but it happened and well… You can’t take the past, right? There was no reason for crying over spilled milk?

The mystery was Dagur himself. His suspicious departure was surprising. Jack expected everything from him, for example murder, punch to the face, hard kick, but not just… him walking away.

“Either way he believed your story, but with your acting I highly doubt it…” Aster sent him a smirk. Jack rolled his eyes. “Or he didn’t believe any part of it and is planning something.”

“I really hope for the first option, but the second one is more possible.” Jack then pushed the door to the Gym. “Either way we will probably find out soon…”

* * *

Their morning practice flew with no problem and no weird glances directed at him. Which was fine. Well as fine as Jack thought.

He walked slowly to his locker, greeting everyone on his way, waving hands and nodding, but everything looked normal. Maybe they shouldn’t be stressed about it? Maybe Dagur bought their lie? And if he did…

That was the hard part. Jack and Hiccup weren’t a pair, they weren’t even friends! So maybe Dagur bought their lie, but for how long he will believe in it? He was deranged, but not stupid.

And Jack seriously could care less, he could simply not do anything, he could say that it was a lie or they suddenly broke up. He could just walk to Dagur and tell the truth. He could do all of it.

But he wouldn’t. Why? Maybe simply because the fear radiating from the small boy was enough for him to step inside. Blame his good heart for all problems he made himself fall into. It wasn’t the first time he did something like that (and it definitely won’t be the last), so he can take the blame and guilt onto himself and push this lie a little bit further away. Jack was totally fine with that…

But how about Hiccup?

Jack knew him only as a - a) that guy who won some contest (Aster told him about it) - b) the pro-nerd that every teacher is talking about and c) the one guy that is tormented by Dagur (which he found out yesterday). Which wasn’t much actually. In which grade he was, what classes he was taking, what was his shoe size? It was all a mystery for him.

The white haired boy opened his locker, threw his sport bag inside and retrieved the old one (which he used to walk around the school). He grabbed few notebooks, pens (wondering if they were still writing), pencils and books, pushed them deep inside the bag and closed the door – glancing only to check where he had his classes. Not his fault that he had a bad memory, so he still couldn’t remember the plan.

He was just about to walk away when someone painfully pushed past him, making him almost hit the lockers with the other arm. Jack hissed in pain (because heck, this guy was strong) and looked back at the attacker.

He never was bullied (okay, maybe once but it was the first day after he dyed his hair white and Aster took care of them pretty quick… too quick), nor was he a fan of this kind of activity.

The red haired senior looked at him with malicious eyes and smirk painted on his bruised face.

Okay, this wasn’t anything that Jack expected from this day, especially not Dagur almost pushing him to the ground, then sending him the hardest glare combined with even worse evil smirk. Okay, this situation called for drastic measures, like moving the fuck away as fast as possible.

But this wasn’t needed, because Dagur turned around, walked away, hands in pockets, humming something under his nose.

“So you wasn’t lying.” Jack snapped his head up to stare at his best-friend that walked towards him.

“Why should I lie about that?” He asked, staring back one more time to see the posture disappearing behind the corner. His hand went to his arm. “Damn, that guy had a problem…”

“With his head or body strengths?”

“Both, definitely both.” There would be definitely a bruise, Jack could feel it already forming.

The first bell rang above their heads and Aster shook his head.

“Let’s see what this day bring us…”

* * *

The fun part started, of course, after the first class. At first Jack felt someone staring at him (very furiously or intimidating or maybe curious, he wasn’t some psycho to feel that!). But as he looked around, he saw many people looking at him, greeting or waving hands like any other day. Yet the nagging touch was there, caressing the back of his neck softly.

Don’t get him wrong, Jack loved to be in the center of attention, just… not like that.

Aster sent him a surprised looked. When Jack noticed it and brushed it away as probably his imagination. So maybe after first class it really was only his imagination.

But definitely after second he was suspicious that Dagur actually wasn’t too secretive with this piece of fake information he got a hold off. That was an option Jack considered, but not actually took as the highest possible one.

“Okay, now I get what you were talking about.” Aster murmured as they both stared at two girls that suddenly turned around and whispered something to each other, still glancing back at them… or more at him.

“Finally!” Jack smiled at the boy with whom he had English - he waved lazily, maybe a little bit shy or… unsure. Oh no…

“But I still didn’t see your boyfriend or even knew who he is.”

Jack rolled eyes, a little bit amused by the tone the taller boy used. A little bit seductive, hinted with curiosity. Yeah, Aster was sometimes a big, baby bunny. But Jack thought that he maybe can keep him in darkness for a little bit longer.

And also because he was afraid that someone might hear them, he said:

“You probably met him soon.”

Yet, even Jack had to say that this was some deep shit he jumped into. Like really deep, it was Baikal Lake of tangled problems and he just swam to the center with no life jacket nor compass. He could think of a better plan, but no, why should his brain act responsible when it was needed!

He needed to talk about this with Hiccup, like now… or pretty soon. Thinking about that, he wondered how the freckled boy was taking it.

* * *

“I don’t like it Astrid, not even a bit…” Hiccup murmured as he spotted another group staring at him with weirded-out look.

He hated to be the one everyone looked at, to be the topic of people talks and conversation or worse… to be the main hero of rumors. But it looked like this was really happening right now. He was some sick protagonist in a weird romance book.

“Wow, this is… different.” Astrid whistled, brushing away fringe from her eye and looking around.

“This is a disaster Astrid!” He moaned and curled inside himself as another girl sent him that look - look that promised nothing good. “Please walk faster, we’ll be late!” Not to mention Hiccup wanted to get as far away from this crowded corridor as possible.

Suddenly the idea of being in a class was like a salvation, a soothing balm to his soul.

The blonde looked around, nodding her head, stomping louder, but definitely faster. Hiccup had to almost run to be on the same level with her.

When they busted inside classroom, there were still some minutes left before the bell. They sat in the front (Astrid hated sitting there, but for Hiccup it was the only place he was left alone), sighing in unison as their butts hit the wooden seats.

“You would though that people have more problems on their head to care about stupid rumor.” The girl leaned on the chair and looked up at the ceiling.

“This is a problem Astrid. Dagur probably wanted to check if this was true or not and it ended like this…” Hiccup knew what people were whispering about, he wasn’t an idiot. “My life is ruined.”

“But you ran away from Dagur.” Astrid stated.

“Really? By being in a relationship that doesn’t even exist? Face it Astrid, someone will soon ask me or…” Here he rolled his eyes fancy. “… Jack if this was true and then what should I say?”

Astrid opened her mouth and closed – looking like a fish that was on the shore and tried to breathe the oxygen floating around it. It was still there, but was unable to do it.

“I don’t know.” She finally said and Hiccup wasn’t too surprised with the result. “You should probably talk with…” Here she imitated the shudder he often made whenever he had to refer to the white haired boy. “… Jack.”

“I know, I know. Not to mention I still had his blouse.” If Hiccup had it in his backpack he would pat it now, not so gently, but the piece of clothing was in the locker. He didn’t want anyone pointing him of being in possession of Jackson Overland’s precious blouse. No, they already had too much problems with this.

“How about lunch?” The girl put both her hands on the desk, laying down her head but still staring at him expectantly.

“Nope. With so many people around? I don’t want to gather even more attention, than I already am. So no, that plan is burned and out of the way.”

“After classes then?”

The auburn haired boy turned ostentatiously to his friend, covering his eyes as another person shot him a glance while entering the room.

“Seem more safe and possible enough for me…” He took a deep breath. “But this means I’m forced to go through this hell all day.”

Astrid laughed, her hair flowing around. She often laughed with her full body.

“It’s your choice.” She said, the smile still glued to her lips when she calmed down, probably amused by this whole situation. “By the way…”

Hiccups ears perked.

“I love your glasses~”

He groaned.

* * *

Finally, finally someone broke that wall. That invisible barrier surrounding him and his friends (Tooth was informed about the situation as fast as they all met) crumbled down and Jack wasn’t sure if he was actually happy with it or not.

“Are you and Haddock going out?” Surprisingly, it wasn’t Heather who asked him that, but the girl which had sat with him in French last year.

And Jack, expected to be asked anything… No, that was wrong - he expected to be asked almost anything (and especially this question), but he didn’t expect to be asked so straight-forward about this.

“Uhm…” Was the only sound that left his mouth.

And how was he supposed to answer that? Excuse me, ma’am but I need to find this Haddock person and clear some things, then I’ll be able to fully answer your question? Wait a moment, I need to call him – oh wait, he didn’t have his number?

Tooth and Aster stood few meters away and although girl looked worried, Aster was laughing his ears off. Stupid Bunny. Aster and Tooth were too far to hear them, but it wasn’t so hard to guess what they were talking about anyway.

“So are you or not?” The girl in front asked a little louder, while crossing her hands on her chest.

So he played the only card he got – trying to gain some time.

“And why does this concern you?” Jack asked instead, shifting his weight.

The girl blinked, taken aback, but quickly (too quickly) returned to her previous interrogation mood.

“I’m just asking sincerely and expect an honest answer.”

Ugh, and he though she was a nice girl. But it looked like he was wrong.

“And this is a private territory and I’m not obligated to answer your interrogation. Now if you excuse me, my friends are waiting for me.” And with that Jack circled around her, hands in pockets of his trousers and trying to remain as calm as possible.

Aster tapped his arm, but the smirk was dancing on his pale lips.

“Way to go, Frost.” He grinned.

Ugh, how Jack hated Aster now.

“Shut up, what was I supposed to say?” Jack groaned.

Tooth put her small palm on his arm, gracing him with reassuring smile.

“I think you dodged that question very nicely.” She said, her voice flowing with kindness. And least one of his friends was on his side.

“As a giant, dancing opossum.” Why was he even spending time with this dumbass was still a mystery to Jack. Ah yeah, best friend and all that shit. Where can he unsubscribe himself from this friendship?

Jack rolled his eyes, but followed his friends nevertheless.

But the worst was just in front of him. The lunch, the Armageddon, the end of the world. He can just feel to herd of people approaching him, asking things they shouldn’t have. Why, oh, why teenagers couldn’t mind their own business? Look at those nerds that never approached him! They don’t care if he is going out with someone, why other people can’t be like them! Curse his popularity! And the fact that this school was so boring!

Coming to this, Jack still couldn’t comprehend this. He was only a part of soccer club and yeah, he may, may not have scored a few winning goals, but it was only that. It wasn’t like he was super amazing at sports and yet he found himself getting more known around the school. And don’t get him wrong, he loved the attention, to be recognized, it’s just… He wanted to be recognized by something more important than ‘being good in sports’, being awed by things that mattered to him.

He gulped hard when the cafeteria came into sight.

“Hey Jack, we can always eat somewhere else if you’re not up to sitting with them?” Tooth asked pointing with her thumb to the door.

“No, I’m fine, besides suddenly disappearing would be even worse.” Jack sighed. “I just want people to mind their own business. Well who cares if I’m going out with anybody. It’s my own matter!”

“They do, I suppose.” Aster nudged him. “Don’t worry, we’ll be here to scare every person off…” Then he stopped speaking.

Jack followed his sudden sharp gaze that was directed somewhere far away. The groan automatically left his mouth.

“Except that one. You’re on your own, mate!” The taller boy patted him on the back, very harsh, but Jack couldn’t really feel him. Tooth only sent him an apology look (her violet eyes shining in the light with unspoken words), leaving him alone with her.

Heather Berserk.

She was stomping right at him, like train speeding up, that just left its station. And her eyes, ebony, swirled, blinked with something that Jack didn’t like. Red, furious lips formed a thin line.

“Jack, can we talk for a while!” She asked when she was close enough, in Jack hearing range, yet she still said it too loud for comfort.

And what options did Jack have – a) run away, b) distract long enough for pause to end, c) talk like normal human beings? Okay, let’s start with not harmful way. Press the c button!

“Okay… here or…?” Please not some empty classroom, or storage, or bathroom. Please, please, please!

The girl looked around, scrunching her nose when the loud yell coming from cafeteria didn’t please her too much. She then moved to stand next to him and smiled sweetly.

“How about a walk?”

Good enough for him.

They roamed around corridors, directing their steps slowly (too slow for Jack likes), but surely to the outsides, to be more precise – to the small backyard behind their school. It was still warm enough for it to be open, but not hot enough for people to actually hang out in big groups there.

If maybe Aster would like the freezing wind a little more, they would spend lunch there and not in the crowded cafeteria.

“So…” Okay, here they go. “I heard some rumors around the school…” Her voice was soft, tingling at the end, like a bell when you open the door to the shop with sweets. Only you find it to be a butcher.

“I didn’t drink the water from urinal, it’s a lie!” Jack automatically responded, trying really hard not to grin at the wide eyes that looked at him, totally taken aback.

“Erm no, not that rumor, but thanks for clearing that one now.” She said and lifted her hand to brush away the strand of her hair. “I mean the one with you and Hiccup…”

How everyone suddenly knew who he was and he barely just found out his name yesterday! How even this works!? How, what? Their school was a mystery! Was Hiccup ridiculously popular earlier? No, definitely no.

You got it Jack, play dumb, buy some time, until you find Hiccup and you can clear few things, especially where they were going with this. But for now, buy yourself some time.

“And how do you even know that?” Jack asked, prolonging every word, not looking at his companion. He was so bad at lying, every person could read through him just by looking him in the eyes.

Maybe because of that the whole school was buzzing about it. Dang it!

“Really Jack? Are you asking me that?” She asked with her thin eyebrows raised high onto her forehead.

And suddenly Jack may or may not have remembered that Heather and Dagur were family.

“Oh yeah, sorry, forgot.” But who could blame him, they looked totally different!

“So you can say I have my information from the first hand. So now, please answer me nicely.”

Okay, Jack you got it!

“So you see… Funny story…”

Wait, wait, wait hold on! Let him think about it from normal or logical perspective. Looking at it hypothetically, if he would be in a relationship that technically made him unapproachable by other people who seek their feelings being reciprocated. Was this why Heather was asking him aabout that (or other people)? Because they thought he was taken?

So if he really was, then that meant people would leave him alone? No more nagging Heather, asking him to go out, no more secret letters in lockers, no more refusing the girls and breaking their hearts (Jack really hated telling them the truth). This all was in front of his eyes. Yeah, this could be totally awesome! Jack just needed to pump up and…

“Yeah, we totally together!”

Now Jack could only hope Hiccup would go along with it.

Heather blinked, probably not expecting that kind of answer. Her eyes darkened for a little, but not in the mean way. It felt like she tried more like to hide something with that look.

“Ah, really? I never saw you two together…” Her voice held a hint of skepticism, mixed with disbelieve. Just perfect combination for this conversation.

“Well because we don’t hang out at school, doesn’t mean we don’t hang out at all.” Jack said. But she hit the point, quite in the center. But hey, It’s his matter with whom he talks in school, right?

Heather sent him a look, the look that didn’t show any acceptance, but Jack didn’t really care. If this meant getting Heather off himself then he was totally fine.

They walked around the school in silence for few more minutes and this time was the most unsettling, yet happiest seconds he had spent around Heather. At least in the last few months it became unbearable to be around her.

“Soo…” Oh no, here it goes again. “For how long?”

Jack wanted to cringe, he wanted to scream, yell and shout because why should he answer that? He could simply walk away, leaving the question hanging in the air. He totally could do that. But something inside told him to halt, because there was something wrong with interrogating him. Like the girl was searching for something, some gap, mistake, clue.

“I’m sorry Heather, but my relationship with Hiccup is something private and the whole school only know about it, because I accidentally spilled it. I would be very happy if you could stop asking me question that should not concern you.” Damn, he said something smart. Tooth would be proud for him about that.

She blinked, then bit the corner of her lip, eyes darting to the ground, arms slumping and for the first time (in like months), Jack saw her so… miserable and sad. Like she suddenly was deprived of all hope.

Then her painted, red lips opened.

“Okay…”

This was… easier and faster than expected.

Something heavy fell from Jack heart. It meant no bugging from Heather. He was finally free, free man… well not technically free, but yeah.

“You need to introduce him to me.” And everything crashed down in an instant. “Oh, you can come together to this party twins are throwing out!”

“Erm party?” Jack asked, hands moving automatically to comb through his white strands nervously. “I don’t think this is such a good idea…”

“Hey, you don’t have to introduce him to everyone. Not to mention…” Her eyebrow flew up. “All school is buzzing about it, so I guess it doesn’t matter now, right?”

“I still want to make it as private as possible…”

Heather only smiled sweetly.

“I guess it’s too late…”

This was going from good to freaking worse and worse. Jack need to find Hiccup, as fast as possible and clear few things. Before it was too late!

But then Heather checked her wrist, gasping loudly.

“Oh I need to go, I promised Miss Anna I will see her at lunch. See you!” She smiled at him, turned around and literally flew into school, heels striking fast rhythm after her.

And Jack simply stood there, gaping at the swinging front door, forward and back, forward and back, screeching loudly.

He put his hand on his face.

“This didn’t go as planned…” But there was no plan in the beginning. Only bunch of ideas and something similar to directions he wanted to follow. But it looked like even with so many tips on how to combine pieces of puzzles, he couldn’t put together the image.

Then he heard a laugh. If maybe it would be any other day he would brush it away, because hearing someone laughing in the school was normal. But he was tired, nervous and now overall stressed about the mess, so the sound made his nerves vibrate.

Yet the voice that followed was like a balm to the sore wounds.

“Stop it Astrid, it wasn’t my fault!”

Jack spun on his heel in the speed of light (well, technically no, but whatever), just in time to see two people walking into the school’s ground, holding two cups of coffee and grinning.

Here he was, the partner in crime, his salvation, his fake-boyfriend or whatever. Jack was never so happy to see someone face in his entire life. Especially someone whom he just met yesterday.

“Hiccup!” Jack shouted, waving his hand frantically, like the loud sound wasn’t enough to get the attention of the only people near him.

The said boy jumped (almost spilled his drink), glancing around nervously before focusing his gaze at him. Was that glasses on his nose? Did he have glasses yesterday? No, Jack didn’t think so.

Hiccup stiffened when he noticed him – his hands gripped the cup tighter and damn, Jack was almost sure he would turn around and run into the school if it wasn’t for the blonde girl next to him that nudged his arm and whispered something into his ear. Hiccup sent her a glare, but the corner of his lips twitched.

They both slowly walked towards him.

“Hey Jack.” The boy murmured, looking at him. The girl only waved, amusement clearly written in her eyes. Jack had a feeling she knew everything (not to mention he felt like he saw her somewhere).

“Hey, hey…” Okay, they didn’t have much time, Jack was totally sure of that. He clapped his hands together. “I think we need to talk. Can you met me behind the school after classes?”

Hiccup surprisingly nodded quickly, biting his lip, then opened his mouth like the simple movement wasn’t enough.

“Yeah, sure, okay.” He said, smiling a little.

“Okay, cool, thanks. Now I need to go before…” And of course the bell chose actually this time to make himself acknowledged around the school. “Yeah, that works too…” Jack groaned.

Great. He turned around, glanced back to wave one last time and disappeared into the school.

* * *

“So I guess I catch you later?” Astrid asked, not looking at him, instead putting books into her bag.

“Yeah, sure.”

She turned around and smiled.

“You’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” She patted his arm, but for Hiccup it was like a ton of bricks was put onto his back (his spine would break, but well, metaphorically he felt like that). “And don’t think about not telling me what you’ve talked about!”

Hiccup didn’t even though about not telling her one second. She would be the first person that would get to know everything

“I will, don’t worry. Now I better go.” He said, throwing his backpack onto his arm.

“Good luck!” Luck with what? Wait, you know what? Hiccup didn’t want to know.

With a loud sigh he straightened his sweater (different from the yesterday one, that one was still hanging in the bathroom), corrected the hold on the blue blouse and moved to the back exit.

The school wasn’t empty, there were still some students that he passed by. They all shot him a weird glance. Hiccup cursed under his nose (he should had taken some kind of bag to hide the familiar blouse of the certain teenager), but tried not to pay much attention to it.

When he pushed the door, the sudden gust of wind hit him right in the face, making him cringe. His glasses almost fell down. He pushed them up his nose, then looked around. Jack still wasn’t here.

With a huff, he decided to wait a little bit. It wasn’t like he had anything else to do. Astrid had her training today. Well, the free time maybe was in his favor, because he still didn’t know what to tell Jack.

Let’s look at it objectively. Today was definitely the worst. Being in the center of attention was one of his worst nightmares. And for what? For some kind of weird rumor that probably Dagur spilled around. Or maybe it wasn’t him. Now it didn’t matter so much. What mattered was that he wanted to be left alone. No secret glances, no weird looks, no whispering to each other. He wanted his invisibility back.

But if Hiccup stared at it from the other side, he was left alone. Dagur didn’t come to him and tried to make a move. To tell the truth, he didn’t even glanced at him today! And it was amazing. So yeah, that was good thing, but for how long will it last?

“Hey, hey sorry for the wait. Professor Black stopped me.”

Hiccup lifted his head, staring back at the blue deep oceans.

“No problem. You have some problems with math?” Hiccup asked, lifting his eyebrow. He, of course, heard that Jack was no A-student, but to have eye-to-eye talks with teachers? And Professor Black for that? No, Hiccup would decline that offer.

“Kind of, but this is not important right now…” Jack mumbled, smiling sheepishly (his cheeks dusted a light pink). “Should we move somewhere else or…?”

Hiccup nodded, but then quickly took the blouse from under his arm and pushed it into Jack’s chest.

“I brought your blouse back. Don’t worry, I washed it.”

Jack blinked few times, but took his blouse and put it on with a thankful smile. It fitted him perfectly (for Hiccup it was way too big, but hey, it warmed him up, so he wasn’t complaining too much. Good that no one saw him yesterday!) also definitely looking better in it than Hiccup.

“Wow thanks, but you didn’t have to do that!” Hiccup shrugged at that, moving in the same tempo as the taller boy. “The Town’s Park will be fine?”

“Yeah, sure.”

The Burgess Central Park wasn’t too far away and it wasn’t often visited by students (only old ladies or mother with kids) so it was the perfect place. But to tell the truth Hiccup often sat there whenever he had a chance. Maybe it was the atmosphere there?

They didn’t actually talk much while walking there, but Hiccup surprisingly didn’t mind. It gave him time to think about what he really wanted to say. And maybe Jack was doing it too, judging by the furrowed eyebrows and occasionally murmurs that slipped past his lips.

The park actually wasn’t big. There were only few paved paths, circling in weird way around the fountain in the middle, yet there was a lot of free place filled with fresh, perfectly trimmed grass in the spring and summer. When you looked at the Burgess Central Park in the middle of the summer though, it was riddled with colorful blankets, towels and small points moving everywhere. But now, in the autumn, it was covered with leaves running away from trees surrounding the park.

They found some bench, in a little bit secluded area, near the trees. It was still visible, but people wouldn’t hear what they were talking about. Well, there wasn’t too many people in the first place. Only five kids and three mothers at the small playground on the other side of the park.

And oh my gosh, they sat so awkwardly, next to each other, but far enough so they weren’t touching their tights nor knees. Hiccup was playing with the hem of his sweater in his hands. Jack was tapping his knee rapidly, like he was drumming some rhythm. Once or twice, from the corner of his eyes, Hiccup saw Jack opening his mouth (his spine always straightened a little with each try), but only at fourth try the sound actually left those pale lips.

“Soo today was definitely interesting, that’s for sure.” He said, slowly. “I never thought that so many people were interested in my love life.”

Hiccup snorted. And this was coming from one of the most popular person in the whole school?

“Yeah, those crypto glances were definitely the best.” After a while Hiccup added, holding onto thread sticking out from the sweater. “Glad no one approached me. I didn’t even know people knew my name actually.”

Jack laughed lamely (the sound you make when you don’t know what to add), his hands flying up to his hair.

“Sooo… no Dagur either?” The boy asked, weirdly unsure tone swimming to the surface from his voice.

Hiccup nodded.

“Yeah, fortunately no Dagur. That was nice for a change.” But the attention wasn’t.

“Good, good, good, very good indeed.” Jack sighed happily.

Hiccup was taken aback by the teenager’s voice, but only showed this in glancing at him with lifted eyebrow.

“Okay, but this wasn’t what you… we…” Hiccup breathed out slowly. This was embarrassing. “Wanted to talk about right?”

Yeah, he also wanted to talk and clear few things between them.

Jack blinked, confused, hand still tangled in his white locks, only to finally, terribly slowly fell down back onto his lap.

“Yeah.” He took deep breath. “Can I be really straight right now?”

And Hiccup couldn’t keep his mouth shut, of course.

“Well you just faked a relationship with a boy, so I don’t know how straight you can be…”

The chuckle that exited the taller boy’s lips wasn’t something Hiccup expected, but was welcomed nevertheless. Just when he was nervous his sarcasm had a bad habit of showing up too much, like uninvited guest.

“Okay, that was a good one.” Jack said, looking like he heard the best joke in his entire life (Hiccup had better things in his assets than that). Then he looked him right in the eyes and with sudden seriousness asked. “Can we… like… hold this fake-relationship a little longer?”

The auburn haired boy though about this possibility, but the odds of it happening were too small for his mind to care too much about it. So his brain wasn’t prepared for that, so it only allowed him to mumble:

“Why?”

Jack looked everywhere but at him, a small tint of pink splayed around his cheeks that he now scratched.

“Well, because you know… I had this girl following me around – Heather… and after she heard that I may, may-not be with you, she kind of gave this signal that she might just leave me alone, knowing I’m already taken. Not to mention I will be free from all those fangirls, so… yeah, pretty tempting right?” Then he looked at Hiccup, eyes lightning up. Hiccup had to agree he looked nice with that glint. “At least for me. So I thought I may propose the idea of prolonging this…”

“Lie?” Hiccup added the word, smirking a little.

“I wanted to say the ‘suave-way-to-save-both-of-out-asses plan’ but your option works too.”

Hiccup exhaled deeply, brushing away the fringe from his eyes. He wasn’t too sure about this, although he thought about it earlier (and was taken aback by Jack asking about it so straight-forward). Fake-dating Jackson Overland meant hard glares from some people definitely, not to mention they were technically lying, right? Ugh, Hiccup hated doing it. But this way he could get away from Dagur (and lately his way of flirting started to get more… grabby) not to mention Aster was Jack’s best-friend, so by spending more time with the white haired prankster he could actually spend some time with the tall boy. And this… this sounded heavenly.

Soo yeah, maybe?

“But how are we supposed to act? They never saw us near each other. We never talked and suddenly we are together. You must also acknowledge that this is a little dystopic.”

“I told Heather that it was supposed to be a secret, but I made a mistake and accidentally blurted out this information.”

Hiccup crossed his arms, his brain sending him a mixed signals.

“This doesn’t make it more believable…”

Jack spun around, addressing him with stupidly wide grin. If Hiccup would look more closely he would see small fireworks’ sparks inside those blue pools.

“So you agree to my proposition?” Jack voice was now an octave higher, like a child that got too excited over some trip.

“I never said no.” He grumbled. This was slowly going nowhere. He needed to give clear answer, no maybes or possibilities.

Hiccup was sure he was stepping into something big, something definitely messy, something weird. It wasn’t some complicated integral, where you need to use at first integration by parts, then use the substitution and voila you get the result*. This was something more difficult.

This was some case of real life Schrödinger equation*.

So he wasn’t totally sure why he did it, the first step. Hiccup was calm, collected, cold-minded and yet… this was really stupid.

When Jack looked at him, with a mixed feeling (some sadness or confusion, mixed, stirred together with a pinch of disappointment and displeasure) Hiccup only sighed heavily, arms slumping down in defeated manner.

So he threw his hands in the air in the end.

“Okay I agree on that really, incoherently, unbelievable plan!”

“Great!”

Good that at least one of them was optimistic about that idea.

“Okay, we now have mutual consent which is good.” Terrible, Hiccup’s mind corrected. “So now I think we need some kind of plan…”

Jack lifted one of his eyebrow.

“Plan?”

“You know, what do we do from now on, how do we act or anything related to that. For instant, my friend Astrid, whom you met earlier will definitely know what is really happening between us. I plan of keeping no secret between her and me.”

Jack blinked, then nodded, the realization swimming in those eyes.

“Aster and Tooth will also know. Well I actually told them what happened yesterday, I hope you don’t mind?” This was directed at Hiccup who shook his head, showing that he didn’t mind that… too much. “You know Tooth and Aster? She is this girl with those colorful hair and Aster is this tall boy always following me…”

Ugh, Hiccup knew too well who Aster was. And from his observation it was Jack who followed the taller boy, not the other way around. But Hiccup had to play his part well or else Jack would guess everything. No, no thank you about that.

“I know them, don’t worry. And I’m totally fine with that.” He said. His glasses moved down on the nose, almost threating him to fall down, so he pushed them up. He was still so unaccustomed to it.

“Good, good then. So about what else should we talk about?”

“Maybe how we should act from now on? You know… with this whole… relationship thing…”

It was so hard for words to slip from Hiccup’s mouth. This wasn’t his comfort zone, not even actually comfortable topic. Differential equations? No problem! Exercises about the theory of relativity*? Pshh, cliché. But relationships? How do they even work?!

And Jack, suave dumbass as he was, started laughing. Ugh, Hiccup’s discomfort and awkwardness could be probably smelt by predators even from few kilometers away.

But the teenager was still giggling, chuckling and snorting. The arms shook under the internal force and lips were stretched to the maximum of function. Great, even his fake-boyfriend was making fun of him.

This will be one hella difficult year.

Even the bench started to shake under them, which wasn’t a good sign.

“Jack, stop.”

And the boy took deep breath and massaged his probably aching cheeks.

“Sorry you just… said this whole sentence like a robot.” But then Jack moved, threw his arm over Hiccup’s shoulder, moving closer. “Don’t worry. All relationship problems leave… to me.”

He didn’t feel too good with that.

“Yeah, because all your past relationships ended so well.” Hiccup rolled his eyes, remembering quite few rumors running around their school.

Jack’s eyebrows furrowed, but arms didn’t leave his shoulder. They slowly started to get heavy.

“I will ignore this comment for the sake of this plan working.”

“You can’t run away from the truth…” Hiccup’s lips twitched at the look the teenager sent him. “Anyway, if that’s all for today, I should get going. Homework won’t do itself unfortunately…”

Jack lifted his hand, which allowed him to slip from the bench and stood up straight.

“Yeah, it was getting late.” Jack also stood up.

Hiccup cringed, suddenly feeling the difference in heights between them. This was so unfair. Hiccup barely reached Jack’s chin (barely, he was so thankful for his wild mop of hair, for making him look even a little bit taller)!

Thinking about that, Aster was even taller than Jack. Hiccup was never so close to the boy to get a chance to see really how tall, but judging by Jack’s height…

“Hey, can I get your phone number? This way we can still talk about it at home.”

Hiccup shrugged, reaching the surface of his thoughts. He took out his phone.

“Sure.”

Wouldn’t kill to have your fake-boyfriend’s number? They put their numbers in  each other phones. For a second Hiccup though how he should name himself on the contact list, but ended with simply writing ‘Hiccup’. This was good, right?

Jack smirked under his nose (a movement that showed nothing good), giving him his cellphone back after a few seconds.

“Here. So I guess I see you tomorrow?” Jack asked.

“Unfortunately yes.” Very unfortunately.

The boy only smiled (seriously, does that grin ever leave his face or is it permanently soldered), waved and walked away, humming something under his nose.

Well that was romantic.

Hiccup turned on his heels, moving in the direction to his house. There were many, many things that still needed to be cleared between them, but they could talk about it later… or move with the flow. Or something like that.

Ugh, Hiccup could already feel problems gathering around them. Why, oh why he agreed to that? Ah yeah, Dagur and Aster, ying and yang… Damn his heart for suddenly beating so loudly while thinking about that damn tall boy (and his stupid eyes and smirk and ugh everything). Life would be easier without love. It wasn’t even love, it was some weird teenage crush, a chemical compound full of substituents and heterocycles…

His pocket buzzed. Hiccup fished out his phone. A new message from Astrid.

_So how did it go? ;)_

As well probably as she could guess.

 

*Orbitals f are the one that are under every other orbital, so they are on the deepest level.

*I just wanted to add this part about integrals xD. You can integrate by parts or by using substitution. There are some other ways, but they are the one mostly used.

*Schrödinger equation – ‘It is a wave equation in terms of the wave function which predicts analytically and precisely the probability of events or outcome.’ In Chemistry it usually can be only used for atoms of hydrogen. Have you seen the equation? It is crazy and I’m so glad I didn’t have to calculate it.

*The theory of relativity – It is a theory about dilatation of time and length and many other important things. For example, if there was a pen laying in the rocket, the real length of it in the rocket and the length of it from our point of view would be different (of course only if the rocket would be moving). It is pretty darn amazing, if you like that kind of things better read about it =D!

 


	2. Beer-Lambert law

**Beer-Lambert’s law** – The absorbance of radiation passing through a homogeneous medium depends on the kind of solution and is proportional to the concentrations – _C_ \- of this solution and to the thickness of the absorbing layer - _b_.

 

“There he is, your perfect boyfriend.”

Hiccup groaned quietly, so only Astrid was able to hear him, but it didn’t stop her from chuckling, then patting him on the back, not so nicely.

“Hey it could be worse, you know?” She said, playfulness dancing in her eyes.

“Yeah, it could, but it’s not the best option either.” Hiccup answered. As they were moving slowly forward, the pack of people standing near lockers became more and more detailed thanks to his glasses.

“Hey, you yourself said that he isn’t so bad!”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean that I automatically like him…”

Astrid huffed, her eyes darting from his face to the people now not so far away from them.

“Soo, should we say hello or something like that?” She asked, an unsureness tingling in her voice.

Hiccup wasn’t totally sure how to answer that. He was fine with not talking with Jack at all in school or you know… ever, but something told him that if they wanted to put up with this plan they actually had to talk or interact somehow. Jack said he will take care of it, right? Right… Just how much the auburn haired boy can trust total stranger that hangs out with his crush?

“Just act like we didn’t see them…” Hiccup whispered into Astrid’s ear, looking away, like he was sharing some secret. And it maybe was, in some weird twisted way, their own secret.

They walked next to each other, unnaturally slow, towards their classroom, but also unfortunately towards _them_. And it wouldn’t be actually so bad if only Jack and Tooth (that was her name or nick or something, at least Hiccup thought so) were there, but _he_ also was. Aster with that stupid grin, with that shining, sparkling but steady eyes and that bristling, gray hair - which swayed a little whenever he changed his position and… ugh…

Hiccup was solid, as a cold, already welded metal, unable to move properly. And if he would be perceptive enough, he would hear the crumbling, creaking sounds his bones and joints were making whenever he made another step.

Why was it so hard to walk and, more importantly, not look that way!

Astrid probably felt something, some kind of vibe that his body had sent, as she picked up some minor topic from their previous lesson and started babbling about it, her mouth not even closing for more than a second. Hiccup was grateful for her for providing this perfect distraction.

They were almost there, almost passed the point. Maybe this was how they were supposed to act? Ignore each other and pretend they were meeting after school? Maybe that was the whole plan?

“Hiccup!”

Guess not.

They both stopped and turned around to face _them_.

Jack waved at them, indicating to move closer in something similar to a friendly chat. But they weren’t friends. This would end probably as awkward as the family dinner with a gay son and a homophobic uncle.

Better move with the flow. It wasn’t the end of the world, right?

“Hey Jack.” Hiccup said, moving forward, staring at this smiling face. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, because Jack looked so… loosen up?

Never mind, Hiccup stopped next to Aster. The alarming LEDs inside his head started to blink furiously, screaming – retreat, retreat! But his legs felt like suddenly pure lead filled them. Astrid quickly sent him a strange look (something between amusement and care).

“I never introduced you to my friends, did I?” Jack stood straight and with a swish movement of his hand (quite too fancy for Hiccup’s like), showed him the girl on his right. “This is Toothianna.”

The girl punched him in the arm playfully, but smiled nevertheless, showing a perfect linear function of equal, white teeth. She then brushed a strand of green hair behind her ear. One free hand was showed to Hiccup.

“Just call me Tooth.”

Hiccup never talked with her. He only knew her from some teachers and students talks. But from his close position he must say that she was… pretty. Her nose was a little bit too small, eyes too close, but it all added nicely to her cute demeanor. Not to mention those hair, literally rainbow splattered on the head, made her look like the happiest person on the Earth.

“Hiccup.” He said, trying to sound as positive as he could be while standing next to the tall boy.

They shook hands. Her palm was soft, not only because of the skin, but also because of the touch - not too strong and not too light. It just felt nice.

“And this miserable excuse of a human…”

“Hey!”

Hiccup tensed and prayed to Thor that no one saw that.

“Is Bunny!”

Hiccup felt like he was a mannequin in some studio, with his brain as a silent director, ordering him to move - _A little bit to the right… lift your head… look him in the eyes! No, no like that! It must be natural! Dang… Don’t stutter. It’s real-life play! You got it. Just one, two, three and go!_

Hiccup stared at the tall boy in front of him, who currently (thankfully) wasn’t looking at him, but was sending daggers at Jack’s stupid smirk.

But then… oh no… he turned to him and Hiccup felt as his legs bent underneath his small body. How was this even working? It wasn’t logical! It was some kind of magic, some invisible force was pushing him down, a vector directed to the center of the Earth. For brief moment he forgot how to breathe when those ingenious, ashy eyes looked at him.

“It’s Aster.” He said.

And of course Hiccup’s mouth could only answer with:

“I know.” Shit, that wasn’t how he was supposed to reply. Now they will know that he was some creepy guy with a _crush_ on the older and taller boy. Everything was doomed!

Aster lifted his eyebrow and there was a second or two when Hiccup saw something blinking in those orbs. Something… different than a surprise he expected. For a moment Hiccup saw some fondness, maybe with a hunch of exultation, merriment. Or maybe that was his mind trying to fit him in the role.

“I-I mean…” Hiccup said, lifting his voice a little, trying not to stutter more. “Miss Bennett told me about your last year project for this Physics Contest…” And it really was truth indeed. But let’s not fill them with the information that Hiccup knew who Aster was way before that. Deal?

The teenager blinked, hiding those eyes and with that simple movement all those earlier emotions flew away.

“Ah right. I did participate last year. Shame I didn’t get too far.” He said, the corner of his lip twitching, finally showing him his hand.

Hiccup caught Aster’s hand. The mighty, strong grip and shook that followed after made his spine vibrate. He hoped that it wasn’t too visible beneath his too big sweater.

“Oh, I think your project was great.” He spoke the first thing that popped into his head, that was overflowed with thoughts about Aster’s hand, how nice it felt to touch that skin, a little bit rough but warm, welcoming. “Nice usage of Höppler viscometer*. I wouldn’t think about it like that.”

Aster blinked, like he wasn’t prepared to hear that. Well, Hiccup didn’t plan on telling it either, but the sudden rush of happiness that appeared on the taller boy’s face warmed him inside. Seriously, who was using a thermostat inside his stomach right now!?

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

Then suddenly all this magic, this kind of weird barrier that appeared around them was crushed down by Jack’s voice. Hiccup wanted to kill him, but only a little.

“Visco… what?”

And back away from the nerd island.

Hiccup took on his shoulders to explain it.

“Höppler viscometer. You know, that machine with oil and metal ball inside? You check how the viscosity is related to the temperature?” But the pure incomprehension beaming from Jack’s half opened mouth told him that was no use. Hiccup sighed and tried to massage the bridge of his nose, but he found obstacle in his glasses, so he only pushed them higher. “Eh, you turn the tube around and see how fast the ball is falling down?”

The recognition finally hit him.

“Ooh that one weird machine!”

Hiccup groaned.

“How did you end up together is still a mystery to me…” Aster said, underlining especially some words with his tone while crossing arms on his chest. He glanced at Jack with one eyebrows raised.

Shit, they were supposed to look like they were together, right? Jack didn’t even do anything (for which Hiccup was grateful). Maybe occasionally talks on the corridors would be enough? For him it was great plan, it meant that he maybe would be able to have a proper conversation with Aster! Gods were merciful to him this year!

The girl behind him coughed.

“Oh, and this is Astrid, my best friend.” Hiccup stepped back and now he made swish movement with his hand, like he was presenting some kind of countess and not his best-friend. He mimicked Jack a little.

The blonde rolled her eyes, but shook her hand with Tooth and Aster. She stopped when Jack showed her his hand.

“I’m glad that Hiccup finally introduced me to you. He was talking so much about you…” Astrid said, smiling broadly. She was having too much fun from it.

Hiccup, although couldn’t stop the snort that left his lips. Yeah, he had spoken few times about Jack, especially how pissed Hiccup was because Jack always blocked him the perfect view of Aster.

Jack anyway caught the hint, the fun sparkling in his brandeis blue irises.

“Oh really?” They shook hands. “Like what?”

“You know, how sweet you act, how you always listen to him – oh - and don’t get him started on your hair!”

Jack smiled, turned his head and looked at him. For a moment Hiccup wasn’t sure if Jack caught the act, but he hoped that he did.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, you know, you’re such a charmer, so I couldn’t resist not talking about you.” Hiccup stated, trying hard not to start laughing right there in front of the entire school.

But the white haired boy bit his lip hard, puffed his cheek and took deep inhale through his nose. It looked like not only Hiccup had problems with containing it.

Then finally the bell rang above their heads. They all looked at each other, some of them shrugged, but in the end everyone walked in their own direction, waving back at the rest.

Hiccup hummed under his nose.

It wasn’t so bad after all.

* * *

“You didn’t tell me you are fake-dating Hiccup.”

Jack lifted his head to stare at Aster walking next to him.

“Was it so important?” Jack waved at the girl that smiled to him, when they passed her. She blushed, but waved back at him.

“No… but it would be nice to know.”

“Now you know.”

Jack smiled, hearing how heavily Aster sighed. He loved pissing off his friend, it was kind of his hobby (one of the weirdest ones).

The previous encounter with Hiccup and Astrid went well… too well in that matter. Hiccup couldn’t see this, but few people stopped to look at them, maybe even eavesdrop and even though it pissed Jack off, he couldn’t quite accused them for acting like that. People were curious and some were more than other.

If just talking in the corridor was fine, then this was the most pleasurable relationship he had. But something, at the back of his head, was telling him that this won’t be enough pretty soon.

“So, are we meeting them for lunch?” Tooth next to them looked up from her phone. Her earrings swished back and forth, reflecting the lights that hit Jack right in his eyes.

“I don’t know. I say we go to our usual spot and wait. If they appear inside cafeteria then we can call them.”

Tooth smiled.

“Cool, they seem like nice people.”

They did indeed. Although, it felt like Hiccup was somehow… straining himself. Maybe he wasn’t used to spending time around people? Jack had a good memory for faces, but Hiccup’s one wasn’t on his list of the most recognized ones. Maybe he was one of these people hanging in the corner of the cafeteria? Far away from Dagur… That seemed right.

They walked inside the room and Jack could already see some people lifting their heads and few even standing up. The table (their table, how they liked to call it) was empty, so they quickly took seats.

Few people approached them - one girl that shared class with Aster, their teammates from football team, the boy with whom Jack was doing project for Biology and so more. It was a busy lunch, filled with conversations interrupted by Jack’s glances to the door.

If Hiccup would walk in, should he call him?

He said Hiccup that he would take care for this whole relationship thing – acting. But to tell the truth, he only said that because Hiccup looked totally petrified just thinking about that. Don’t get him wrong, he knew what pairs did, the problem was totally different.

The problem was that he and Hiccup weren’t together. And okay, he didn’t really care too much for occasional hugs or winks. It was even okay to hold hands. Those things were fine. Even small kisses on the cheek were okay to some extent. But he hoped that they won’t have to do more.

But Jack still wasn’t sure how they should act. He told Heather that they wanted to keep it a secret, but maybe they should just act like their big relationship was finally discovered? This way people won’t be listening and eavesdropping around anymore, trying to find out if this was truth or not. But this definitely will put more attention on him and definitely Hiccup. Yet this way Dagur will definitely leave him alone… and Heather could tag along with him too.

It looked so easy in the movies or books. You just play along, the twists happen, then the main characters fall in love and…

Scratch that, no falling in love. They were just two people who were doing it for their own purposes. No love involved. Friends? Sure. Hiccup looked like a nice guy. But lovers? Nu huh!

He talked a little bit with Aster and Tooth, still glancing back at the door. But neither Hiccup nor Astrid appeared.

* * *

“May I know why are you sitting here when you have a full lunch at your school?”

Astrid smiled and put another fry in her mouth.

“The case is the food there is terrible…” She said, then turned to their companion with this glint sneaking inside her eyes and Hiccup automatically knew that meant trouble. “Not to mention Hiccup wanted to run away from bloodthirsty fans!”

The dirty blonde haired boy sniffed loudly, his nose scrunched in this few seconds and eyebrows flew high onto his forehead, hiding behind the company hat, that he was forced to wear.

The girl next to Hiccup snorted loudly. Her braids fell down onto her chest and hid the plaque with her name.

“Fans? What fans?” Ruffnut asked with disbelieve painted clearly in her voice. She then leaned, snatched Hiccup’s coffee and took few sips.

Hiccup just sighed, used to that by this point.

If someone had told him few years back that he would be sitting together with Thorston twins in some food joint, talking like they were best buddies, then Hiccup would totally laugh in their faces and call them delusional. The chances of it happening were as high as finding electron in one place on an atom’s orbital*. And yet here he was…

Before Hiccup could open his mouth to probably snap at his best-friend (not counting Toothless), Astrid already leaned above the table (her hair almost fell into her ketchup), put her hand near mouth and whispered:

“Hiccup’s boyfriend fans.”

Oh boy.

Ruffnut next to him choked on Hiccup’s coffee, her eyes came out with tears appearing in the corner as she started to hit her chest hard, probably trying to redirect the flow of the liquid. But Tuffnut wasn’t any better as his face twisted into horror (not even caring that his sister was currently dying right next to him) and his mouth hung open.

Tuffnut blinked and then, in hoarse voice, asked:

“Hiccup’s what now?”

Astrid rolled her eyes. She motioned with her hand for Hiccup to help Ruffnut who was still dying next to him. Hiccup patted her hard on the back, which finally helped her catch a breath.

With teary eyes, she looked at him, eyes accusing him of not helping earlier.

“Hiccup’s boyfriend fans!” Astrid repeated, this time more slowly, like she was explaining something to kids. And in the Thorston twins case that was probably too close to truth for comfort.

Tuffnut lifted his hand.

“Permission to question?” He asked, still totally dumbfounded.

Hiccup felt just tini-tiny little bit mad and offended by that, but by looking at himself… yeah, he totally could understand them.

“Permission granted…” Astrid said, rising her eyebrow.

“Can we now laugh?”

Hiccup groaned as his head fell to the table with a loud thumping sound. He hit his nose and forehead painfully because of that movement, but his glasses were fine. After two days he started to even like them - even though they were nerdy as hell, however they made him see things, so yeah… equal exchange.

Ruffnut snorted, probably at his behavior, and Tuffnut followed, then Hiccup heard something that resembled a sound of a high-five. Great friends they were, why did he even put up with them? That was still a miracle.

“You finished?” Hiccup mumbled, his voice muffled by the soothing touch of the cold table.

“It depends…” Tuffnut snorted. “Who is the victim then?”

And in this moment Hiccup understood that Astrid had really too much fun out of this mess. Her sweet voice ringed in his ears:

“Do you remember Jackson Overland?”

“Frost? Ya, I remember him… Wait… No way!”

“You’re joking right?”

“She must be, Frost wouldn’t date Hiccup. This isn’t possible! He must have bribed Frost with something!” Well Tuffnut wasn’t too far away from the truth.

Hiccup finally graced the company with the ability to see his miserable face (and probably also the scowl forming on his lips).

“That is the truth…” Unfortunately, he added in his mind.

Astrid leaned on her chair, crossing her arms on chest.

“Yep, unfortunately their secret relationship was discovered, so we decided to tell you guys about it too. The whole school is buzzing about it.”

Ruffnut blinked.

“Yeah, I heard some girls talking about it here. I didn’t know it was about you thought… Although I should catch the bait, hearing words ‘small nerd’ constantly coming from their mouths.” The sentence was underlined by her devious smirk.

Not this time, this time Hiccup wouldn’t catch a bait. He was too tired now.

“Sooo… will you introduce the star to us anytime soon?” Asked the blond boy, glancing at the wristwatch and nodding at his sister to get up.

“Maybe.” Hiccup answered suspiciously.

Ruffnut smiled.

“Yeah, you should totally bring him to our party!”  She stood up, gathered the trash around the table and threw it on the tray. Hiccup’s coffee was still half-full. He quickly grabbed it, so she wouldn’t able to take it from him.

“I think this is a bad idea…” He said, also getting up, Astrid following and throwing her bag on her arm.

“Nope, great idea! So smell ya later!” Tuffnut chortled evilly and high-fived one more time his sister. The twins walked to the counter to take back their shifts.

They both waved at them (more like Astrid waved and Hiccup nodded) and walked out of the bar. After moving few meters away from the joint, Hiccup lifted his head and tried to punch Astrid hard on the arm (but it probably came out as something soft as a brush).

“What was that?” She asked lifting her eyebrow.

“Why did you have to tell them about Jack?”

Astrid shrugged, the surprised look replaced with a small smirk. Definitely too much fun from it. She looked like someone just gave her early Christmas’ present or found full test solved just one day before exam.

“Relax. I’m just helping you.”

“By telling the twins? Astrid, I understand telling it to anybody, even Snotlout, but… twins, seriously? Ruffnut is probably now spreading the news all over twitter!”

The blonde laughed – that sound made Hiccup’s spine shiver. She was his best-friend - a devil in angel’s costume. Hiccup was now pretty sure she was responsible for hiding all those x in mathematical functions. Damn her!

“You don’t even have twitter…” Astrid slowly said, but the grin didn’t leave her lips.

“And she knows that!”

She patted him on the back, surprisingly not too strong for her.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine!”

Hiccup highly doubted it. Because the twins meant only one thing – problems.

* * *

Nor Jack, nor Bunny and not even Tooth saw Hiccup or Astrid for the rest of the day. Jack wasn’t too surprised by it. It looked like they didn’t even have one class together. Not to mention until now he never really saw Hiccup in the corridors.

If this was how dating Hiccup looked like, then he was totally fine with that. It made him almost think why he didn’t think about this plan earlier. But as every good thing this calmness also had to take its things and move out.

“Jack, do you know where Hiccup has classes now? I need to bring him his notebook…”

And of course Jack only gaped with this stupid smile plastered on his face, thinking about how he can run away from this situation with full pride.

The boy in front of him stared at him expectantly and Jack… Jack didn’t know how to answer that. He didn’t even know in which grade Hiccup was! Such great fake-boyfriend he was.

“Uhm you know, I think…” His mouth opened, formed some words, but his brain didn’t quite registered them.

And ugh, he felt the look on his back. Of course this was the class he had with Heather. Curse his luck!

“Maybe…” Just say something.

And then the God got merciful on him as Bunny next to him leaned on the table and answered for him:

“Biology with Mister Corona…”

The boy in front turned his head and nodded at Aster, thanking him quickly, then turned around, leaving classroom with few minutes to spare.

Jack sighed loudly, arms relaxing when the pressure that was suddenly put upon them was defeated. That was some kind of middle-level boss and Jack had to say that he totally… failed it.

“Thanks.” He finally murmured, looking around. Heather was talking with some girl next to her.

“No probs, but even I have to say it was weird. You could just made something up.”

Jack groaned.

“I know, but you know I’m a terrible liar…”

“You had no problems earlier when you were introducing Hiccup to us.” One eyebrow swam high onto the forehead.

“Yeah, but that was only introduction, I didn’t have to make something up! Not to mention it was only our group.”

“How about that talk with Heather? She sounded convinced.”

Jack ran his hands through his hair.

“Yeah, then she literally forced me to go to the twins’ party!”

Aster took out his notebook and opened it.

“Ugh, twins’ party means only trouble…” He said, his voice a little bit lower and quieter, because of the throng of people that suddenly emerged from the door.

“Exactly!” Jack moved closer.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be there with you. And I’m sure that if Hiccup will go then Astrid will follow. Nothing bad will happen.”

Jack smiled, feeling a little bit better suddenly. Yeah, they had nothing to worry about. He had his friends and Hiccup was smart, so there was nothing to be afraid of…

But first, he needed to do something.

Get to know more about his boyfriend. Or their plan won’t work.

* * *

“Bye Astrid!” Hiccup waved at the blonde.

She turned around, still jogging and waved back.

“We’ll talk on skype!”

“Sure!”

Hiccup turned and slowly walked back home. Or at least he hoped he will get back home. This was the day he finally wanted to start working on his project as he got quite few ideas on his mind. But it looked that his needs were futile as someone threw his hand on his arm.

At first he tensed, expecting the manly voice just right next to his ear to be creepy, terrifying, deranged, yet he received a laugh.

“Come, I need you for a second. Or two. Or maybe even longer. We need to talk.”

Hiccup lifted his head, just in time to see Jack wave at someone.

“About what?” He asked when they moved away from the curious looks of their schoolmates.

“Many important things!”

Hiccup sighed. There was probably no chance of running away from this, right? Right.

Hiccup allowed for his body to be literally dragged around the town. His eyes curiously wandered around shops’ signboards, every other more colorful than the previous one (probably trying to catch attention of as many people as they could). There were a lot of people walking around, bumping into them mostly. And it was loud. The sounds of people talking, chattering, laughing, the loud honks of cars and their engines, the steady rhythm of music coming from the bars. It was aggravating. Too much incentives were trying to get to him, to his ears, to touch his eardrums. Those vibrations, tingling, swishing were only making him sick.

He really hated going out, especially to the center of the city.

But Jack, next to him, didn’t look fazed by that. He was walking forward like all those sounds missed him, like he had some kind of barrier around him that prevented those sounds to come inside it. Hiccup envied him a little.

So when they finally entered some kind of café and the door blocked all kind of vibrations, Hiccup sighed in content.

“Sit somewhere private. I’ll buy. Want something specific?” Jack asked, turning to him and smiling.

He shrugged.

Jack said that he would find him, so Hiccup was left alone on a mission to find two empty and private seats.

He found a small table in the corner, under the dim light of a wall lamp, next to some elderly man that was reading a newspaper. In Hiccup’s opinion it was private enough for whatever Jack wanted.

The said boy appeared seven minutes later holding a tray with two glasses.

“Sorry, there was some weird woman that couldn’t make her mind in front of me.” Jack said putting their order down.

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but took his own drink. Well, they both were the same, so it really didn’t matter.

“Don’t worry about it. How much for the coffee?”

Sitting down, Jack shook his head.

“Don’t worry, it’s on me.” Then he smirked, showing a perfect monotonic function of equal white teeth. It was a crime in Hiccup’s mind to have something so ideal. Life wasn’t even fair when it came to teeth. “I’m such a great boyfriend, am I?”

“Yeah, totally.” He said in static voice, yet inside he was amused.

Jack blinked, but the chuckled. It wasn’t a full laugh. Kind of the snort when you hear something funny, buy actually you heard it earlier.

“So what you wanted to talk about?” Hiccup asked when Jack didn’t speak and was busy eating the whipped cream off his coffee.

“Ah yeah, I wanted to talk about us.” He murmured, not even lifting his eyes from the spoon that maneuvered above the glass, probably trying to spot the part of the cream holding the biggest amount of chocolate that was sprinkled on it.

“Wow, wow much details. Such topic.”

Jack snorted one more time and finally dipped his spoon.

“Okay, at first I wanted to ask to what extent do you want to do this?”

Hiccup was lost.

“Pardon?”

“Okay, different approach…” Jack took deep breath. “I mean we need to show probably some kind of affection around the school and I was asking about what you are willing to do with me? I mean…” Shit, the blush on Jack’s face was starting to get hilarious. If this was how his face looked whenever Hiccup got flustered, then he understood why Astrid was always laughing at that. “I just want to know what should or can we do…” His hands played with the spoon, mixing the coffee too harsh now.

“I thought you were a pro in…” Here Hiccup lifted his hands and made a quotation mark. “…’relationships’ matter.”

Jack stopped moving his hand. In this time the auburn haired boy finally took a first sip of his own coffee. And… almost gagged. Cinnamon. He hoped that his disgust wasn’t clearly visible on his face. He didn’t want to hurt Jack, because of his choice in drinks. He should had said that he hated it, but who could have guessed that Jack would take something with cinnamon?

“I said I will take care of things, not that I’m a pro in that matter.” Jack said slowly, weighting all words. Or maybe he was just trying to remember what he actually had said.

Hiccup stared at the cup.

Jack asked quite important question. What was he willing to do to keep Dagur away? Well, the answer was simple - actually a lot, but Jack didn’t have to know that.

Okay. Hiccup didn’t believe himself that he was actually thinking about that. What he was willing to do with the almost unknown person in a fake-relationship? First of all, do relationships really look like the ones in the movies or the ones in the books? Are they so over affectionate in real life too? Are they supposed to text and met every day? That sounded like a lot of problem. No, Hiccup needed to think about details. What pairs usually do… at first – they hold hands.  Was Hiccup against holding hands with total stranger? Well, you shake hands, so he guessed that holding onto someone’s hand for few minutes longer wouldn’t be so bad.

“I’m fine with holding hands…” He started, his hand landing on the ear of the cup. He took another giant sip. The faster he drank, the faster it would disappear.

For second – they hug. That was a little bit tricky as Hiccup didn’t quite like any human interactions. High-five? Okay. Pat on the back? No problem. But real hug? Not really his type of favorite equation. He once had tried to cheer Astrid up by hugging her. He had read somewhere that hugs could heal someone. And of course Hiccup’s hug had healed her, but not in the way he had read about. Astrid had started laughing because – as she phrased it – she never received such robotic hug.

“With hugging… I don’t know. Maybe short ones would be fine.” Hiccup took deep breath. “I’m quite uncomfortable with any form of physical interaction or contact, so don’t freak out when I’ll suddenly freeze.”

Jack stared at him with amused imps dancing in his cheeks’ dimples.

“Okay, how about pecking? Like on the cheek or forehead.”

“Well don’t expect much from me. The only life being that received my pecks is my cat.” Hiccup said, an embarrassed smile probably ghosting over his lips.

“What if I will kiss you on the cheek?”

Hiccup wasn’t actually too comfortable with this idea. It’s just… kisses were something private, something shared between two people that actually felt something to each other, not between people who were trying to run from other people. Or maybe Hiccup was just childish.

He wanted to be left alone by Dagur, right? Right. It’s would only be a second or two of touch of lips on his skin. Jack was willing to kiss him on the cheek to get someone away, so Hiccup can bear with it.

“If they won’t be too often I think I’ll somehow survive.”

Jack laughed, his coffee half drank by now.

“So I guess kisses on the lips are out of the question?” He asked.

“Definitely.”

Yep, Hiccup never had his first kiss. Maybe it was stupid or childish or girly or… anything similar to that, but he really wanted his first kiss to be with someone he liked. Maybe not his true love or fated person or things like that, but with someone… special…

“What if we will be forced to kiss?”

Hiccup took another giant sip and gulped it, trying to remain stoick. Jack paid for it, so he didn’t want to make him feel bad.

“What do you mean?”

Jack shrugged.

“Like what will you do if we will have to kiss to prove something?”

Hiccup stared at his fake-boyfriend, searching for something in his smiling face, but he only saw pure curiosity. No upper plan, no weird look, no encouragement. It was so clear look, that Hiccup started to wonder how anyone could have so innocent eyes.

“I don’t know…” He spoke the truth. “I never thought about that, but I guess if it will be really… I mean really necessary then I will do it… At least I think… I’m not sure really.”

“Cool, I was just curious. Let’s hope that nothing like that will happen then anyway.”

“Yeah…” He knew that this was somehow the end of one matter, but still something wasn’t really fitting in. “Was it all you wanted to talk about?”

Jack, who in the meantime was staring fascinated at the ceiling, snapped his head back.

“No, not really.” He started. “Well, it’s just this dude approached me today and asked where you had classes and I was like ‘I don’t know man…’, but then I thought that he expected me to know it, ‘cause I’m your…” And once again quotation marks with a small grin in the corner of lips. Was Jack mocking him? “… ‘boyfriend’ and then it hit me that I really know nothing about you. Sooo…” Here Jack put his hands on the table and drummed his fingers nervously. Probably nervously. Hiccup wasn’t sure. Whenever he saw Jack and Aster together it looked like the white haired boy was more opened than the other.

But point taken.

“Yeah, good point.” He pushed his glasses higher. “Sooo…”

And Jack suddenly lightened up like a burning magnesium ribbon*.

“Twenty questions?” He asked. His voice dripped with something that Hiccup could only describe as playfulness and enjoyment. It was weird hearing it. But he had nothing against it.

“Twenty questions it is…”

* * *

So Jack exited the café richer with information about the smaller teen.

They mostly asked each other simple question and for every one of them Hiccup always took time to answer, even if this was question about his favorite color (which was green or ebony). Jack on the other side yelled or shouted almost every answer, waving his hands in the air. He was just this kind of person that loved talking about even minor things.

And he maybe enjoyed the freak outs Hiccup got whenever Jack burst out. Yep, definitely funny.

Summing things up, Hiccup was one year younger than him, he had no siblings, he lived with his father, his cat was named Toothless, his hobby was reading or building things, his favorite subject was physics or chemistry, he had kind of obsession with dragons and so more and so long.

Jack definitely spoke more than Hiccup. But who could judge him? He loved the attention, he loved being surrounded by people and he loved being listened to. And it looked like Hiccup quite didn’t mind. So when Hiccup only answered with two words (even though he was thinking for two minutes), Jack was literally making elaborates about his favorite food.

It was kind of funny. Jack felt like a child again. When he was younger, much younger, it was so much easier to gain a friend. The only things required was something similar, for example a mutual love for swings and _voila_ – friends for a life time (or at least until their parents called for dinner). There was no strains, no invisible walls, no barriers between kids. It was so easy to talk, easy to laugh, easy to banter.

When you’re older it is harder to make a friend. You can’t simply walk to someone and say ‘Hey, I also love pink, we can be friends!’. You need to get to know this person, spend time, live through something, something special.

Yet this few hours with Hiccup – person he barely knew – gave him a taste of his childhood. Why? Jack wasn't totally sure.

They still weren’t friends of course. Some people were his friends and with some he only talked occasionally or hang out, but to be really honest Jack only have two best-friends that he trust from the bottom of his heart. Because friendship take time, friendship take trust, you can just switch on some buttons.

Maybe they were buddies? Mates?

They parted ways and Jack walked to his house slowly, humming some song under his nose. He had to say that it was quite good day. Maybe not the best days of his life, but definitely enjoyable one. And definitely more interesting.

“I’m home!” He yelled as he swung the front door open and literally kicked off his shoes. Ugh, his feet were itching for using those damn shoes all day.

“Jack!”

And then came the tackle.

Jack opened his arms in the last second before something small and blurry jumped at him with so much force that he had to make few steps back.

The girl in his arms snuggled to his blouse, giggling happily.

“Hey, hey, hey do you know what happened in school today?”

Jack shook his head. His hands wandered to settle under the small girl’s arms as he lifted her up. His legs buckled up beneath him, but he held strongly. Or at least he tried to.

“You know Mary* right? You must know Mary, she was in our house two weeks ago…”

Some blurred, gray image blinked in front of Jack’s eyes. His sister had a lot of friends (really a lot, she was so similar to him in that matter) and she told Jack about every one of them, but well… Sometimes it took time for him to fish out the memory.

But this time it didn’t work. He guessed he had to play along.

“Yeah, yeah, totally know which one…”

It looked like his sister didn’t quite mind or didn’t see his lie because her chocolate eyes shone with excitement and mouth moved nevertheless:

“And you know what she did? You know what she did?!”

Jack definitely didn’t know.

“What Mary did?” He asked, moving from the hall. He heard sounds coming from the kitchen – something that sounded like boiling oil. Uh oh, Jack should hurry up!

“She punched Sid in the face!”

Okay, stop, stop, this was slowly drifting in very bad direction. They were only like in fifth grade or so? Why was his sister so happy about her friend punching someone? He need to talk with their father about that.

“Okay, why she have punched him?” Jack asked, trying to sound not too cheerful. Even though he didn’t quite approved what Mary did or why Emma was so happy about it , it was kind of funny to imagine a ten year old punch someone.

“Because he was mean to Russell! And he was yelling mean stuff at him! So Mary punched him.”

Well that escalated quickly.

Jack walked inside the kitchen where he immediately saw his bulky Dad rummaging through the cupboards, humming something under his nose – which Jack presumed was some kind of Christmas’ song. On the stove stood giant pot with something boiling inside. On the frying pan next to it the vegetables were sizzling angrily - there was also dark smoke above them.

He quickly put Emma down, ran to the stove, grabbed some spoon and stirred the vegetables. Well, the good news, they weren’t as burned as he thought they would be.

“Ah Jack, good to see you. I was searching for oregano!” His Dad turned his head to him. Faint, blue eyes shone with happiness and recognition. His tattooed hands were still running through the shelves, even though he wasn’t looking there.

And only now Jack saw the smaller pot behind the bigger one where the sauce was boiling not too happily about that. He quickly turned off the fire.

Quick notification to remember – his Dad was terrible cook. Status updated - except for Christmas’ food – these ones he aced with the highest grades.

“It’s in the drawer on your left.” Jack said when the danger was overtaken. The noodles were boiling slowly, vegetables were good to go and sauce wasn’t too dark. Perfect. Now they only needed few spices to season the dinner and they were good to go… err, eat.

The man yelled gaily. Soon the sauce was sprinkled with, literally, a waterfall of spices.

Jack grimaced

“Oh no, no, no! Let me take over, I insist!” He moved near his Dad and with his hip tried to move him away, but it was quite hard as he was almost twice Jack’s size in weight and about one head taller than him too.

Jack carefully took all packages from the man’s bulky hands.

“Okay, khorosho, leaving it for your care then!”

North – as Jack sometimes liked to call him (a habit he caught from his Dad’s friend) - moved away, starting to get plates and glasses.

“So how was school?”

And here they go.

His Dad of course knew about his grades or at least about most of them. But he didn’t know how bad Jack’s situation was. Was it a good time to talk about it? North knew many people around, so he probably knew some tutors, right?

Here goes nothing…

“Um, Dad…”

“Oh I already don’t like it, so spill it out!” The giant man wasn’t looking at him. He was bend over the table while distributing the dishes. His back muscles were tense, like he was preparing himself for some kind of blow. He often did that whenever Jack spoke about his problems. But even until now Jack didn’t know if this was a good sign or a bad one.

He turned off the noodles, took out the colander, put it on the sink and then grabbed cloth and pot and poured everything above the sink.

“Uhm you know… that I kind of have problems at school… And funny thing – I kind of failed the last test… so Professor Black told me that if I’ll fail another one I can say…” He put the pot away, grabbed the colander and started to shake it violently. “… Goodbye to passing this grade. So I was curious if you maybe… know someone good at math who can help me?”

Jack observed as the man’s shoulders move an inch higher to finally slump down heavily with a long exhale.

“Okay, that could have gone worse.” North said, weirdly jolly as he turned around, one hand on his grayish beard. “I can ask around at work if you want.”

Jack smiled, or at least tried to smile, as his Dad’s palm landed on the white haired boy’s arm, making his legs shook beneath his body. He almost spilled their food into the sink.

“I’m glad that you told me anyway. I’ll ask tomorrow and if not, then we’ll search for someone on that computer of yours, tak?”

He nodded, feeling some of the nervousness and tension flowing away from his body. This wasn’t so hard. He almost could say he felt better now. Everything will work out for him, right? Heather will leave him alone, Emma will learn to not get excited over violence, he will find some kind of tutor and everything will be fine. He will end this school…

But what then?

“Now the dinner!”

Jack looked up at the man and felt something bubbling inside of him. Something evil, something malicious, something typical of him.

So when he separated noodles, covered them in delicious sauce and they all sat together, he looked right at his sister and asked:

“So Emma, tell North what did you do today?”

Because they both knew that North wasn’t a biggest fan of violence.

* * *

“And we talked.”

“Ugh, lame…” Astrid retorted, probably bored to death.

“I think it’s kind of sweet!”

Hiccup rolled his eyes, hearing the over warm voice of his friend in his ears.

Astrid groaned in his other earbud. Not even second later she yelled something, something similar to ‘kill that things’ and then the screen lightened up with violet light.

“What? I think it’s nice that he took you to some café to talk. It was almost like a date!”

“Fortunately it wasn’t, Fishlegs.” Hiccup smiled under his nose as he saw the bloody letters on the screen indicating the death of his friends.

“But it could be!”

He could agree, but he didn’t.

Fishlegs was his second (or third, counting Toothless) best-friend. He moved from Burgess a year ago, but even though they were living quite far away, they kept in contact.

And Hiccup though that maybe it was better for him to move out than to stay in this town, where ekhm… Fishlegs wasn’t liked too much. But the people in his town were great, he had a lot of friends in his school, so Hiccup was happy for him. Not to mention now he had a place where he can go for holidays with Astrid.

Yet he often found himself missing him. Talking on skype was great of course, but well… Fishlegs was this one friend that understood him even without speaking too much. When Astrid often solved his problems with a punch to the arm, Fishlegs used more calm ways, that resulted often into sitting and watching Discovery Science for few hours straight.

He was also the mother hen of their team, which he didn’t quite missed.

“The last thing I want is a date with Jack, believe me.” Hiccup finally said, when the silence wrapping around his ears wasn’t too comforting. Only when he lifted his head from his project, he saw that Astrid and Fishlegs were in the middle of some boss battle.

Somehow they defeated him or her (Astrid used some weird giant-pro-spell that costed too much of her mana). Two small heroes moved forward through the forest.

“Yeah, but I know with whom you would want a date…” Astrid murmured too seductive for Hiccup’s comfort. She was probably also grinning too much, her mouth forming a parabola with positive a next to squared x. Oh, he can see it in his mind.

Fishlegs giggled in his other earbud.

“But it’s a good thing right! By being with Jack you can be near Aster, right?”

His pen froze midair, not ending the asymptote that he was currently drawing.

“Uhm yeah…” He murmured.

“Does Jack know?”

“Hell no!” Hiccup cringed when his voice echoed in his ears.

His statement was followed, of course, by an evil laughter coming from Astrid and a kind chuckle from Fishlegs. He didn’t understand why they found this topic so hilarious. Okay, maybe he had a crush, but come one… everyone had at least one crush in their life, right? Right… Maybe it was the way he acted around him, or even thinking about him, especially his smile and those eyes…

No, stop thinking!

“That is not funny. And no, Astrid you cannot tell him!”

The girl laughed harder and her character accidentally threw some spell.

“I wouldn’t dream about it. You’ll probably just reveal it somehow by mistake soon anyway.”

The scary part was that the probability of this happening was quite big. Enormous even. His magnetic field was working strongly, luring problems to him nonstop. He could already feel it.

“So what? You’ll be only holding hands sometimes and he will kiss you on the cheek? Kind of lame…”

“I think it’s cute.”

Astrid snorted.

“Did you even tell him about the party at the twins?”

Hiccup really tried not to think about that event.

“Uhm no… I kind of forgot about it.”

“Better late than ever.”

“I’ll tell him tomorrow.” Hiccup grumbled, now crossing something on his blueprint.

Somehow…

* * *

The next day looked almost normal. Well, as normal as his day could look after the huge fake-relationship reveal. So yeah, Hiccup was still being glanced at, pointed at and whispered about, but not counting that, it was relatively okay.

He had met Jack only in the morning and waved at him, which was quickly followed by a whisper and giggle coming from some girls following him to the next class. So that was definitely new.

Astrid left him for her own classes, so now he was roaming around the building alone, left with his own thoughts. And his thoughts were filled with ideas for new robotic project. Yesterday he had made only few quick sketches, nothing too big, nor spectacular. Don’t get him wrong, he didn’t want anything spectacular. He just wanted to make something… innovative! So yeah, he still was on the first line, but he got quite some time still to think about it.

“Mister Haddock, may I take a while?”

Hiccup lifted his head from his chest and focused quickly his gaze on the person in front of him.

It was quite surprising to find the tall man standing not even a step away.

“Of course, Professor Black…”

Professor Black was one of the most hated teachers in their school and Hiccup could totally understand why. His always bored look didn’t quite mixed well with the evil smirk he often wore (especially showing itself when he found out that some student made some dumb mistake). Simply - Professor Black wasn’t a nice person to those who were lazy, yet Hiccup didn’t hate him. Of course, the tall, lanky man, who was wearing nothing but black suits, was making him feel edgy, but nothing more. The small teen could almost say he tolerated Professor. And Hiccup got the feeling that Professor Black maybe even reciprocated the feeling.

Not to mention Professor Black was never mean to him nor said anything bad, so that was a giant plus.

“It came to my hearing that you’re emotionally attached with one of our students.” He said slowly, looking Hiccup right into his eyes. His hands were holding something. “I’m not in place to judge your personal choices, although you could definitely do better…”

The surprise look on Hiccup’s face was probably pretty visible, because the man coughed – the sign he often did, when he wanted to change the topic or hide something.

Then the paper the tall man was holding was presented to him. Hiccup took it carefully. Nothing good came from Professor Black’s hands, this paper could incinerate itself with no apparent reason even.

“Could you give this test back to Mister Overland? I though he may like to have it back. This way he will know on which topics he should focus more.”

Hiccup nodded, totally dumbfounded, because it finally hit him. Professor Black knew about him and Jack! This was ridiculous! Who told him? Did he eavesdrop some students? Although the image of Professor Black creeping around female teenagers giggling in a circle was kind of funny. But still… how!?

“Okay, I’ll do it.” Hiccup said, not even looking at the papers.

“Good, thank you.” And with that, the black haired male turned around to march inside his classroom.

But before Hiccup was able to even made a single step, Professor turned in the doorway.

“And Mister Haddock, please tell Mister Overland that he better be prepared for the next test, because it won’t be easy.”

“Okay…” He nodded, not really sure how he should answer that.

Professor Black nodded at him with his static face (it really showed nothing, it was just staring at him and yet Hiccup felt like he was read like an open book. Yeah, definitely creepy).

“Have a good day.”

“Same to you, Professor.”

The auburn haired boy slowly walked away from the classroom. He might have nothing against Professor Black, but still…

The really scary thing was the fact that the man knew about him and Jack. And what was even worse was the fact that there was nothing between them! The rumors nevertheless spread here faster than the gas in the elevated temperature (with few exceptions of course)!

Hiccup wondered if more teachers would walk to him to talk about his oh-so-real boyfriend Jackson Overland. If yes, then he was literally doomed. Jack wasn’t known for having the highest grades in school …

Hiccup lifted the paper that was still in his hands.

Actually, to be honest Hiccup really thought that Jack was intelligent. Judging by the scarce imitation of conversation they had, he got a feeling that he was smart - not in the bookish way, but in the… more natural way? Hiccup had no profs (or very little profs) confirming his suspicions, but the feeling was there. And he often listened to his feelings.

“It couldn’t be that bad.” He murmured to himself, as his eyes moved to look at the sheet.

But it was. It was really terrible.

The whole sheet was covered in red circles, lines, exclamations and question’s marks to this point where Hiccup wasn’t sure where was the actual answer. Maybe the back page would be better?

But it wasn’t. It was still covered in three different colors (the red one still the most visible). There was even a note form Professor Black at the bottom!

Okay, okay, that was definitely bad! But maybe, just maybe the questions were difficult, right?

Nope, they were easy. Well not too easy, but logical and quite simple if you actually made few exercises at home.

So Hiccup did the only logical thing. He quickly took out his phone and searched for Jack’s numbers. Coming to this, he didn’t even check how Jack signed himself… He hoped it would be something normal.

Nope, no, it wasn’t. It was _‘The Hottest Dude You Have Ever Se’_. Someone had a big ego. Well, it must be him, Hiccup didn’t remember having anyone else with that name! Not to mention, there wasn’t even place for the last two letters.

_‘Can you met me after classes behind the school? I’ve got something for you.’_

He walked to his next class and sat in his seat, just in time for the second bell to ring above their heads.

Hiccup was taking out his book, when his phone buzzed.

_‘Sure ;)’_

* * *

“Ya going?”

Jack shook his head, a grin too wide for comfort probably graced his face.

“No, I have a secret meeting~”

Aster blinked, swirling his keys on his finger. Then almost after five seconds some cables inside his head connected, because he nodded.

“Okay. So see you later?”

Jack nodded. It was finally Friday. He actually had some plans for the weekend, but he decided to refuse all of them. He hoped that he could start learning, maybe crash at Aster’s or Tooth’s house to ask them for help, even thought they were terrible at it. Yeah, that seemed like a good thing to do.

Jack nevertheless felt bad. He knew he wasn’t the brightest or the most intelligent person. It was even better not to mention his laziness. But failing his last year… It was slowly starting to scare him. The though only recently spurted out of the darkness. It was a small seed planted few months ago, but now it was watered and started to grow, slowly, but steadily overtaking his mind in that process.

He had no idea what he wanted to do after school, but there was only one thing sure. Jack wanted to finish High School, no matter what.

But he will do it after whatever Hiccup wanted to talk about.

When Jack opened the back door, he found Hiccup already standing there, staring at something in his hands. He didn’t even see the white haired boy, nor did it look like any kind of factors actually cut through to his mind.

“So what did you want to talk about?”

Hiccup jumped, when Jack literally whispered it into his ear. It was just too tempting and who was Jack to refuse scaring someone? Well, maybe someone normal then, but it would be too boring.

“Jack, don’t sneak on me!” Hiccup turned to him, face red and Jack wasn’t sure if it was because of the embarrassment or the cold outside. Maybe it was both.

“Sorry not sorry. But you still didn’t answer my question.”

The auburn haired boy then showed him without hesitation the paper he was holding. And the look on his face didn’t show anything good. Well, it was a mixture of surprise, sadness and anger, so yeah, all the bad emotions in Jack’s case.

“Professor Black stopped me today and asked me to give this to you.”

Oh no…

Jack halted, suddenly very aware of the thing in the smaller teen’s hand. Yep, he could see the red lines splashed all around the paper, lines that made him cringe inside. But this wasn’t the worst. Knowing you were bad was one thing. Your best-friends knowing it was other thing. But Hiccup knowing it – someone who Jack hoped would be his friend… this was a little humiliating. Especially if this someone was the best student in their school and his fake-boyfriend.

“Oh, thanks… I guess…” The taller teenager said, not even trying to sound happy or confident. He took the paper away from the boy and looked at it quickly. He could already feel something forming inside his stomach – a small guilt.

“Jack do you have problems with learning?”

The white haired teenager didn’t lift his head, only turned the paper around and stared at few paragraphs written by Professor Black at the end.

“Yeah, kind of but…”

“Do you need help with it?”

To say that Jack was puzzled was a good word. And only when he looked into Hiccup’s eyes – unnaturally big behind the glasses - he understood something. He hadn’t seen this one feeling that really made him felt bad – there was no pity swirling inside those green eyes.

He hated to confirm those words, because saying that you need help was making him feel… useless. But this was truth and he was bad at lying. And mostly of all he really needed help.

“Yeah…”

But before he was even able to say that he actually started to ask around for tutor or that he talked about it with his Father, Hiccup was already speaking:

“I can help you.”

“What?” Jack asked in very a high tone, the words registered by his brain seconds later.

Hiccup got flustered and started to turn his head around, not glancing at Jack now for even a second. Oh and he started to babble:

“I mean I have quite an experience with helping other people in learning. Let me tell you, teaching Snotlout Chemistry was one of the worst things in my life, but hey, he passed, so that was good…” He corrected the strap from his backpack on his arm. “I mean that in Math, Physic and Chemistry I am in advanced classes, so I actually already covered what you had on the test and I think I will be able to clear few things for you. If you want of course!” Then it looked like the words that left his lips in a never-ending flow finally were processed by his brain, because now even his nose turned red. “I-I didn’t mean to brag about myself. That sounded so bad. What I meant is, that I cannot help you in History or Geography – I totally hate those classes. Or even Cooking classes are out of the way. But if you want help with something that I think I’m quite good at – still no bragging! – then I…”

And Jack couldn’t stop the beam that formed itself on his lips. Well, that really meant a lot to him, because Jack lately had brought Hiccup probably more problems than the boy already had… yet here he was, offering his help to someone as Jack.

For anyone else it was probably nothing big, it was something normal even. But for Jack it meant world. Lending a helping hand in such situation (and Hiccup probably didn’t even know how bad the situation was for Jack) – it allowed Jack to regain this few strings of hope that were almost cut down.

“Yeah, I would love to. I mean, I really need help right now.” Jack said breathlessly, smiling probably as widely as a child that someone gave the best gift ever. And for Jack it was one of the most important gifts right now.

Hiccup finally looked at him - face literally red as tomato, hands tangled in the hem of his sweater. His eyes blinked, brushing away the worry and replacing it with fondness and relief.

“Great! So when is the next test?”

“Thursday…”

Hiccup blinked one more time, but quickly shook his head.

“Okay, that’s not a lot of time.” He then pushed his glasses higher. ”And which topic we need to cover if you could be more precise?”

Jack somehow fished out the memory from his brain.

“I think it was something about limits*?”

And Hiccup groaned. Not a good sign.

“Please don’t tell me you also had trigonometric functions in them?” He asked, the hope tinted his voice.

And uh huh, Jack needed to destroy this hope.

“Yes?” Or at least he thought that they were there.

Hiccup took deep breath and massaged his temples with two fingers. His glasses moved down. It looked like they could fall down, but before they were able to, Hiccup lifted his head.

“Okay, we can do it, but we need to work pretty hard. I hope you’re not doing anything tomorrow then?”

Jack shook his head quickly, feeling something seeping inside his chest and covering it in something warm. It wasn’t the burning guilt now, definitely not. It was something different, something definitely new, but welcomed nevertheless.

Maybe it was the Sun shining behind the clouds – something akin to first rays of hope.

“No, not that I can think of.” Jack said, that stupid smile plastered to his face. He was literally bouncing inside.

“Okay, I’ll come to your house then. How about 1 pm sounds?”

“Totally fine!”

Hiccup smiled, his crooked front teeth were now visible.

“Cool, send me your address via message. See you tomorrow then!” Hiccup said at the end as he passed him in a light jog.

Jack turned around just in time to see the small boy catching up with Astrid, who turned to Jack and waved at him. Walking slowly to their homes. they both started talking.

Jack moved, humming under his breath. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. He got rid of Heather for some time and now he even got himself a tutor. Maybe saving Hiccup from Dagur was one of the best days of his life?

* * *

“Hey, we totally should go to the laser tag tomorrow! Some dude just tipped me with a free coupon!”

“Heck yeah, I’m in!”

Astrid behind him hummed in response, not looking away from her fingers. Seriously, couldn’t she do it somewhere else, but in Hiccup’s room? Yeah, he was probably the only guy on the whole Earth that saw Astrid Hofferson paint her nails! And Hiccup wasn’t sure if he should be proud or ashamed of that.

Yeah, being _the gay friend_ had its pros and cons. And this… this was definitely con.

“Astrid, please don’t spill your nail polisher on my quilt okay? Last time I had to treat the stain with a remover and then made a hole in it.” Hiccup shuddered remembering it. He really liked that quilt. It was warm and comfy.

“Relax! I’ve got it under control!” Then Toothless choose this second to jump onto the bed and on the girl’s knees.

Hiccup stared with wide eyes as the small bottle tipped dangerously, but before it could fall down, Astrid quickly snapped it in her fingers.

“See. Everything under control!” She said, gracing him with a smirk. “And about laser tag, I’m in, only when?”

Tuffnut on the video chat hummed under his nose and swirled on the chair, in which process he bumped into his sister sitting next to him.

Hiccup refrained himself from speaking. He knew he would be dragged anyway. The only way of excusing himself would be when his butt would be on fire (literally, this is what Tuffnut had told him once). Anyway, he listened for few seconds as the twins bickered between each other, until the girl turned to the camera:

“How about tomorrow sounds?”

Uh oh.

Hiccup felt as his bed bounced when Astrid jumped excitedly. Toothless looked at her with weirded out look and moved away to curl next to Hiccup’s good foot.

“Yeah, totally! I need to recharge myself for the next week!” She almost screamed, moving to sit next to Hiccup, so she also would be able to see the screen showing the twins room.

Tuffnut and Ruffnut head bumped each other (seriously, that looked painfully, and even on the other side Hiccup could hear the sound of it dulling into the air) and turned their grinning faces to the camera.

“So we’re good? I need to call Snotlout and ask…”

“Actually I can’t go tomorrow.”

The boy with dirty blonde hair stopped babbling. In exchange he directed surprised look at him. But his sister was quicker to open her mouth:

“Come on Hiccup, don’t be a fun killer!” She whined - her voice sounded like a working dryer.

“But I really have plans for tomorrow.” Hiccup mumbled, suddenly feeling that actually this wasn’t such a good idea. He should had say that he can go and tomorrow change his plans.

No wait, that was also a bad plan. He once had told them he was ill and they literally had went to his house, kidnapped him and together drove to some amusement park, two hours away from Burgess. Yeah, scratch that plan!

“Like what? Even more learning? Dude, you have the best grades in the whole school, you can have one free day!” Tuffnut moaned, throwing his hands in the air.

“Yeah, what is so important that you can’t hang out with us?” Astrid next to him nudged his arm, staring right at him with those vibrating blue eyes.

This would sound so cliché and ugh… romantic, but…

“I’m tutoring Jack tomorrow for his incoming test…” Hiccup whispered, trying very, very hard to sound as quiet as possible, but still give the needed answer. But of course it was no use, because apparently the twins had suddenly weird ability to hear things they weren’t supposed to hear, so both their mouths turned into delightful, for them, smirk.

“Uuuu it’s a classic learning-date!” Ruffnut winked at him. The movement made Hiccup want to gag, but the only thing he did was sigh loudly. “You’ll be describing to him how to find the x and then he will try to find you point g~!”

At that Hiccup groaned heavily, feeling as his cheeks started to get hot. Seriously? Couldn’t they be even more childish? And no, that wasn’t a challenge.

“Good one! Oh, I’ve got one too! You’ll be showing him how to calculate angles in a triangle and in exchange he will show you the best angle to…”

“Enough!”

Hiccup was never so thankful Astrid for stopping the small contest between the twins.

“Stop it guys! Look, Hiccup will blow a fuse soon!”

“Aww, our small Hiccup is embarrassed!” Ruffnut cooed, weirdly sweet (as for her). She moved to pinch her brother’s cheek, like he could replace Hiccup on the other side.

Tuffnut jumped away disgusted. Astonished look was painted on his face, as he massages his now red cheeks, mumbling something similar to ‘what the heck woman?’.

“Anyway, okay, you’re dismissed. But we need a full report after your…” Here Ruffnut made quotation mark with smirk on her pink lips. “… ‘learning lessons’ then.”

“You know that nothing will happen, right?” Hiccup asked, but even after he spoke those words he didn’t quite believe them himself.

Ruffnut was anything but normal. And apparently she liked to add her own ending about things that definitely won’t happen.

“Yeah, right. You and your boyfriend, alone in his room, I wonder what will happen?” She snickered when Tuffnut literally gagged right next to her. He hid his head between his knees and for brief moment Hiccup really though he actually vomited on the floor. Fortunately, it didn’t happen.

Hiccup had to admit, after his accidental reveal last year that he was gay (in front of almost entire school) things were going quite smoothly. Well yeah, back then for almost three weeks there had been some slight bullying, but nothing much. Okay, there had been only one quite dangerous encounter, but hey, he had got out of it unscathed, so it was fine. After that all whisperings and unkind stickers glued to his locker ended. Just like that.

Hiccup wasn’t sure what had happened back then, he only remembered that he had simply ran away one day, as far as possible and the next day it had felt like nothing happened. The guys who had even ‘attacked’ him apologized, so this was good, but still a total mystery. And it could stay that way.

But he was really happy that his friends took it so well. Of course, it had took some time at first, but they warmed to this idea rather fast and Hiccup… was quite proud of them for doing it.

Yet, sometimes they were still uncomfortable with that. For example – vomiting Tuffnut - that not only few minutes ago himself was speculating not-so-childish outcomes.

“Nothing will happen, Ruffnut!” Hiccup said, staring up at the ceiling. But only his lamp stared back at him and it also knew it was futile.

“Yeah, right. Still want to see both of you at our party!”

Oh, yeah, the party. He was supposed to ask about it today. Well, he can do it tomorrow.

* * *

“North, I have some good news!” Jack said in sing-song voice. He couldn’t stop the smile trying to appear on his mouth, but heck yeah, he felt as the sky above his life was just brightening up - the small rays of sun pecking through the dark clouds. Yep, it was awesome.

His father lifted his face from some papers that we was looking through (Taxes? Loans? Jack didn’t know). His cunning blue eyes lit, when he saw Jack.

“Yes, what would it be?”

“I found a tutor to help me in classes!”

North face beamed, a tons of small, thin wrinkles appeared beneath his eyes. Even his beard moved, when the corner of his lips flew higher on his face.

“That’s amazing! I’m proud of you.”

“Yeah, he’ll be here tomorrow, so please don’t embarrass me in front of him!” Jack quickly added the last part. He knew his family too well.

North looked at him, his mouth now forming a long line (or at least Jack guessed it did that, because his actual lips weren’t visible under the mighty, fury, snowy beast called North’s beard).

“Jack, you know me. I would never do something intentionally to embarrass you in front of the others!”

Intentionally? Maybe not. His father had the kindest heart in probably the whole Burgess. But accidentally? Huh boy, this was pretty possible. Add here his sister, that literally loved to make him feel ashamed, and this duet was unstoppable. So yeah, better hush on cold.

“I know, I know. I just wanted to make sure.” Jack quickly lifted his hands, trying to surrender, before it would turn into some kind of argument.

But thankfully his father was quickly to forget such things, as he grinned widely.

“Don’t worry, we won’t do anything to embarrass you.”

And as Jack though that it was the end and indeed nothing would happen, his sneaky sister ran inside the kitchen and passed him to rummage through some shelves. When she found her cookies, she turned to him, sat on the counter and with devious smirk said:

“I don’t promise anything.”

Great… This is what he needed.

* * *

“Where are you going?”

And Hiccup almost though he would walk out of the house without his father noticing him.

There wasn’t anything bad in it, Hiccup just wasn’t in the mood for telling his father why he was going out. But lately Stoick tried really hard to hold proper conversations with him. It wasn’t the bad imitations of grumbles and awkward silences that had happened between them some time ago, but real conversation: question – answer, question – answer – expansion of the answer. To be honest Hiccup felt proud of his father (he knew how hard it was to talk with him, because his friends told him like a million times to stop being such a sass and sarcastic butt).

“I’m going to tutor friend in Math.” He said, trying not to sound too disrespectful. He even smiled at the end.

Stoick nodded at him from the kitchen, looking from Hiccup feet (foot) to his head.

“Astrid? Thorston twins?” He asked. “Snotlout?”

Yeah, Hiccup’s range of friends wasn’t too wide.

“No, actually someone else.” Hiccup corrected his backpack that tried to run away from him.

Hiccup, of course, had no intentions of lying to his father, so he said nothing more about it.

“Oh good, good. Do I know him or her?”

“No, I don’t think so. He helped me once in school…” Better not to show too many details. “So in return I offered him help in Math.”

Stoick nodded one more time, processing everything. He put away the plate from which he was eating until now and stood up.

“Okay, don’t be too long out there. I will buy something for supper.”

“Okay, bye Dad!”

Hiccup walked out of the house, patting Toothless one more time before closing the door.

Jack house wasn’t too far away, maybe around fifteen to twenty minutes, so Hiccup decided to walk there. Not to mention he didn’t have a car nor driving license, so that was out of the options. But this day wasn’t too cold - walking sounded almost nice when he armored himself with a very fluffy sweater.

He felt pretty weird. Hiccup didn’t have many friends. It wasn’t like he was a total outsider, just… the amount of people he really trusted was pretty low. And he felt quite comfortable with what he had. He had no strains when he talked with Astrid or Fishlegs or even twins and Snoutlout, but he knew them for pretty long time. Not to mention they were all through really weird things.

With Jack… not so much. Of course they talked almost freely, but their conversations were very plain. They knew literally nothing about each other and the only one real conversation they had, had been in the café. Hiccup didn’t know how Jack acted on a daily basis, how he acted in his house, how he behaved himself outside with friends. This was a total mystery to the small teenager.

And Hiccup wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. But if they wanted to keep their… plan a little bit longer, he guessed he had to find out. Because what kind of boyfriend Hiccup would be if he didn’t even know the real Jack?

A fake one, definitely, but still…

Jack seemed like a nice guy. Totally different from the one Hiccup expected him to be. He kind of felt bad that he assumed Jack would be all douchy, just because he played sports and was popular. Damn, he often complained about how people judged books by their covers and here he was, doing literally the same. Hiccup felt ashamed of himself.

That’s why he decided to help Jack. This was his weird way of apologizing to him for thinking like that.

“I think, this is here…” Hiccup looked up from his phone at the simple, green, two-floor house standing proudly in front of him. He felt that weird feeling coming from it, like every wood, every splinter was vibrating with something. Something definitely positive. Yeah this was definitely Jack’s house. Maybe the house somehow absorbed boy’s optimism? Hiccup shook his head, chuckling under his nose. This was stupid.

He walked slowly up the stairs to the veranda. After locating the doorbell, he ringed it. He heard sounds coming from the inside and not soon after the running footsteps echoed very near him.

The door opened to reveal a kid with long, straight, brown hair and grinning face, where chocolate, warm eyes shone with fun and amusement.

“Uhm, hey…” Hiccup murmured, not really expecting for someone else to open the door. Did he get to wrong address? “Is this Overland’s house?” He asked.

The girl, not letting go of her smile, nodded enthusiastically and moved a little bit away from the door.

“Sure thing! You must be Jack’s tutor?”

Hiccup walked inside, where he took off his shoes and jacket. He glanced back at the small girl that was looking at him expectantly.

“Uh yeah, yeah I am.” He smiled a little. That curious look was making him nervous. “My name is Hamish, but everyone call me Hiccup… and you?”

The girl giggled (Hiccup was used to it), covering her mouth with her hand, that she quickly showed to him, still with that giant grin glued to her face. That beam looked familiar. Hiccup wondered if this flew in the blood of the Overland’s family.

“Emma, Jack’s sister. And speaking about that dumb bro of mine…” She then cupped her mouth, making a small tube from her hands. “Jack, Hiccup is here!”

And then they both heard some weird sound coming from upstairs. The voice was definitely muffled and also a little urgent, which made Hiccup think that Jack was unprepared for the intrusion. But why? They had decided yesterday that Hiccup would be here on this specific time. Was he early? No.

“What?! Emma! You told me it was half past eleven, not twelve!!”

The girl next to him laughed and Hiccup tried to stop an urge to move away as far as possible.

“Sorry!” She said, although Hiccup was sure that she wasn’t sorry. The small spark of evil hanging inside her eyes was definitely showing no good. Hiccup decided that he never wanted to get on Jack’s sister bad side.

They stood there awkwardly for few seconds, listening to Jack’s scrambling coming from upstairs. It looked like, option a – Jack only recently woke up or b – was taking the shower.

The sudden curse, followed by a sound of someone definitely falling down, convinced him it was the second option.

“Soo are you Jack’s friend?” Emma asked, staring at him with kind eyes (weirdly so different from the ones she had not only five second ago).

“Erm, kind off? We’re maybe friends, but not close ones…”

She hummed and smiled when Jack upstairs shouted something, something that sounded like a howl of pain. Hiccup wondered how many bruises he already had.

“Still I’m glad you decided to help him. He looked happy yesterday when he told Dad about finding a tutor.”

“He did?” Hiccup asked, before he was able to bit his tongue.

Emma one more time nodded and leaned on the wall. Her hand moved to her hair, where she twirled one strand on her petite finger.

“Uhm, yeah. He maybe doesn’t look like that, but he really cares about such things.”

Hiccup blinked.

“You mean… about learning?”

Emma shrugged.

“Kind of.” She turned to look at him, right in the eyes. Jack often did it too. Staring right at someone. Hiccup felt like she could read him like an open book. “I don’t think he is dumb…”

Oh, so this is what she meant.

“Neither do I. Lazy? Definitely. Too hyper active? Also. But I think he is smart in his weird Jack’s way.” Ugh, it was so hard to explain. Hiccup in the middle of his sentence started to swing his hands, trying to show what he meant. But his palms only made weird uneven circles to finally fell down.

Emma giggled when the doors upstairs opened.

“Yeah, definitely.” She swung on her heels. “You’re a nice guy Hiccup.”

Hiccup didn’t really know how to answer that, so he only shrugged at this.

He wasn’t really too nice. Maybe neutral? Yeah, he wasn’t the type of person that was always smiling, even while walking down the streets. He was the type to hung your head and not look at anyone.

But that reminded him that Jack almost always walked with his head held high. Hiccup never saw him looking down, even when he was passing through the corridors. His eyes were always directed forward with that weird, comforting smile soldered to his face.

If someone here was nice it was definitely Jack. He saved him from Dagur, in a bad way, but it was the will that mattered.

Jack finally walked down the stairs. And Hiccup could pat himself on the back, because indeed it looked like Jack was taking a shower.

When he spotted Hiccup, he smiled a little, showing his snowy white teeth. His hand travelled to his still wet hair that were glued to his head and because of that they didn’t stand out as usual.

“Hey, I see you have met my sister.” He said, trying to sound as casual as he could, but the visible redness of his cheeks showed that this was uncomfortable situation even for him.

And Hiccup felt a little bit like laughing. Here was the most popular dude in the whole school getting flustered about the fact that he was taking the shower when he was supposed to meet guests.

“Yeah, I did.”

“I don’t need to say that she is the evilest thing on the Earth?” He asked, now directing his look at her and crossing his arms on chest.

Emma only smiled and moved past him, up the stairs.

“I learnt from the better. See ya later, Hiccup!” And then she ran probably to her room.

Jack very quickly coughed away the embarrassment, as he turned back to Hiccup.

“Sorry for that. She was supposed to call me earlier.”

“Don’t worry. It’s okay.” Hiccup answered, surprised that Jack was actually apologizing for that.

Jack eyes lightened up as he made a step back and waved his hands in the direction of the stairs.

“So now, let’s move forward to my chamber.”

Hiccup walked, but his eyebrows rose.

“You mean a man cave?” He asked, before he was able to bit himself on the tongue one more time.

“Yeah, more over.” Jack followed after him.

Jack’s room was at the end of the corridor, in front of Emma’s room and it looked… just as Hiccup expected it to be - minus the mess. There was a giant wardrobe in the corner covered in some kind of posters and stickers. Next to it stood bookstand filled with games (literally tons of them) and comics stocked in perfect piles. There was bed, nicely done (with small mascot laying on the pillow), in the middle of the room and a giant desk in front of it. So yeah, typical boy’s bedroom.

The only weird thing were small snowflakes hanging on threads glued to the ceiling. And that the whole room was covered in blue. But other than that, it was okay.

“Don’t be deceived. Usually I have a mess here, but I cleaned it up a little.” Jack said as he marched inside and threw himself on bed, running perfectly straightened quilt.

Hiccup followed after, still looking around.

“I feel honored then…” He mumbled as he approached one shelve and looked through the titles of some games.

“Hey, even I don’t want to show my dirty room to my boyfriend.”

Hiccup turned around, facing Jack, feeling as his lips turn upwards.

“You’re such a gentleman then.”

“Yes, yes I am.”

Yet there was something that really irritated him in Jack’s current look.

And Hiccup couldn’t let this chance slip by, so he walked to Jack and sat next to him. He grabbed the still wet towel that hung around Jack’s neck and brushed away the rest of the shampoo from his hair. Perfect.

“Yes, you are, almost.”

Jack looked at him, the magenta tones dancing on his cheeks. And it came to Hiccup’s mind that he looked so different from the Jack he saw so often in school. He wasn’t the cool Jack, he wasn’t the popular Jack… he was just normal Jack. Normal teenager that got flustered over soap on his neck.

“Sorry, I was in a hurry…” He said, suddenly not moving anything, but his lips.

Hiccup shrugged and pushed the towel around the neck, where the white bubbles were still flowing down, wetting the shirt and leaving dark spots. How Jack didn’t see it or feel was beyond Hiccup’s comprehension.

“I noticed, trust me…” Hiccup murmured, glancing at Jack. The white haired teen was still looking at him. “I can see that siblings can be sometimes a pain in the butt.”

Jack’s hand played with his shorts, picking on threads hanging from the end.

“Yeah, but more like most of the time.”

Hiccup spotted few droplets of water dripping from Jack’s hair, so he stood up and threw the towel over taller boy’s head and started to rub it furiously.

Jack shouted as his hands moved up to probably grab Hiccup’s own to stop him from the torture, but as soon as it started, Hiccup stopped.

“What was that for?” Jack whined, when he was finally able to take his towel away. He threw it somewhere on the bed.

“Your hair was still wet.”

“Couldn’t you do it a little bit softer?”

“No, no I couldn’t, now get up. We have a lot to catch up to.”

Jack groaned and laid down on bed. Maybe Hiccup should take it back. Jack was the laziest person he knew.

* * *

When they finally sat together to actually learn something it moved smoother than Hiccup actually expected.

Jack, when he wanted to, could focus quite quickly. Whenever Hiccup explained something to him, showing examples all over the way, he listened silently, nodding from time to time or asking, when something wasn’t totally clear. And when Hiccup asked him to do few tasks he really put his mind on doing them, mumbling something to himself as he scribbled down numbers.

At first he calculated them all wrong, but he showed his paper to Hiccup with such hope shining in his eyes that Hiccup felt bad when he had to tell him that he made some mistakes on the way.

Yet, he didn’t give up and when Hiccup explained it a little bit more, he made another exercises with only one error. Which was pretty amazing in Hiccup’s opinion.

Hiccup glanced at the line of signs, letter and number and he nodded when he spotted the correct result.

“It seems that you’re starting to get the hang of it.” The smaller teen said, more to himself than actually to Jack, but the boy heard it nevertheless.

“Of course I am, I’m awesome.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes as his glasses slipped down.

“And so modest.”

“You bet!”

The desk buzzed when someone tried to contact Jack via his phone and another message appeared on his screen. It was the fourth one in the span of three hours.

“You really are popular.” Hiccup said, nodding his head in the direction of Jack’s phone.

It was actually pretty nice that Jack didn’t even pick it once to answer it. He always only checked who wrote to him, then left it there, not even then sparing a glance.

“Yeah, you can say that.” Jack mumbled, looking one more time at the screen and then shaking his head, a ghost of smile tracing on his lips.

“You can answer them if you want.” Hiccup looked at some other exercise, then at the clock. They were on it for some time now. It was funny how time moved so fast when Hiccup was in his nerd zone.

“No, they can wait.” Jack muttered and turned to look at him.

Well Hiccup more like felt the curious gaze on his cheek as he flipped through the textbook.

“I think we did plenty and deserve a break.” He said, turning to Jack and pushing higher his glasses. Even though they brought him his vision back, he was still not used to correcting them from time to time.

“Oh, in that case…”

Jack leaned on his chair, his hand grasped the phone and brushed his finger on the screen. The phone came to life with a happy beep.

For the next few second Jack’s blue eyes moved through the texts he received, from time to time furrowing eyebrows and even twice blinking in surprise and then shining with laugher (with the warm voice following soon after). His finger tapped on the desk and lips, partly opened, whistled some song.

Hiccup circled some task he was sure they would be doing later. It was going quite smoothly and he started to think that it would be even a piece of cake for Jack to pass that test. But better to not really told him that right now, there was still a lot to catch up and Hiccup needed Jack motived and ready.

The taller boy next to him, threw his head back and laughed even harder at something he had read.

Hiccup glanced at the monitor standing in front of him. It was switched on, because Jack insisted on playing some background music, but they stopped doing it as Jack was more singing than actually doing the exercises.

The wallpaper was pretty normal - it was some snowy landscape. Or maybe it was a photo Jack had taken (there was someone there that looked a lot like Emma) when he had been on some vacation?

Hiccup was leaning closer, trying to recognize more details on the picture, when someone decided to call Jack on skype. The small icon appeared on the screen, scaring Hiccup, who jumped in the air and then (not) gracefully leaned back, which resulted in him falling down. Together with his chair and not so manly squeak.

And the skype call sound still rang around, like it was laughing at him.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the computer who was chuckling at him in reality. It was Jack, miserably trying to cover it by biting his knuckles.

What was even worse was the fact, that Jack actually picked the call and Aster’s (Aster’s!) face appeared on it. Great… and Hiccup face now flushed even harder in the beat with his heart starting to jump around his ribcage, wildly as expanded, reactive gas.

“Hey Jack.” The boy on the screen waved his hand and Hiccup took his time to cover his face with his arm. Ugh, amazing. He just wanted to disappear. “Why are you laughing?”

Jack surprisingly moved away from the desk and not soon after Hiccup felt as the white haired teen grabbed his hand and hoisted him up.

So yeah, now he was standing embarrassed – and also with messy hair, bruise forming on his head, glasses sitting weirdly on his nose and his shirt ridded up a little – in front of his crush. Just perfect. Great.

He quickly sat down, when Jack lifted the chair. He just wanted to disintegrate, dissolve, like he was some freely soluble substation. He didn’t have to be homogeneous, he only needed to be invisible for human eye.

“Do I want to know what you were doing?” Aster asked, lifting one of his eyebrow.

It took Hiccup all of his strength now not to bawl right in front of him.

“U-uh, we d-did nothing…” Hiccup quickly answered, feeling as his face heat up with every word that left his lips.

Ugh, he felt as Jack turned to him with curious gaze even. Nope, he was dead, doomed!

Yet Jack also decided to help him, because Hiccup wasn’t sure he was able to mutter any more coherent and proper for this situation words.

“Hiccup just flipped, because you suddenly called. That’s all, don’t worry your… your…”

Aster blinked and leaned on his chair (showing pretty nice muscles beneath his shirt, gosh, Hiccup needed to stop that) as he stared with questioning gaze at Jack.

“My?”

“I wanted to say pretty little face… but your face is not small, not to mention, it isn’t even pretty…”

Ugh, Hiccup had to strongly disagree on this one, but he busied himself with looking at the textbook, that fortunately didn’t fall down with him.

“It’s better than yours. And this is what matters!”

“Nuhuh, mine is better!”

Aster sighed heavily as he rolled closer to his computer. Hiccup only stole few quick glances at him, still too embarrassed to face him properly. Plus, it wasn’t like he was talking to him, right?

“Yeaaaaaah, tell yourself that. But anyway I called to ask if you’re doing something tomorrow? Tooth was supposed to go with me to pick up the suit, but she has to help her mother at work.”

Hiccup still didn’t lift his face. Seriously? This was so unlike him! He tried to hold his head high, to be brave, but it sometimes took Aster’s one look to turn him into… this. This miserable excuse of nerd.

“I don’t know, I have a lot to learn…”

This actually was nice. Jack willingly refused the offer to hang out with his friend, so he was able to learn and pass the test. Hiccup didn’t expect that kind of dedication from the white haired boy.

And he felt that he shouldn’t really bring Jack down.

“I have nothing against it, just tomorrow we need to fasten up a little, and then you’ll be free.” Hiccup murmured as he slowly lifted his face to stare at his companion.

Jack turned to him, but shook his head, still smiling.

“Nah. I know I’m a miserable student and I want to grab every opportunity I’ve got to pass this test.” He then turned to the computer. “So sorry Bunny, but not tomorrow and not in this week.”

The boy on the other side sent him, or maybe even both of them, a sad smile.

“I totally understand, just wanted to ask…” He then turned a little and directed his cunning eyes at Hiccup, who straightened his body as a string under this gaze. “So you’re teaching him?”

Okay, there are such things as words. Hiccup need to use them and probably form some kind of simple answer.

“Um yeah.” Well, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t totally good either. Ugh, why did he have to act like that? He had had no problems with presenting his work at the contest last month, he even had felt excited when he had told them how the spectrophotometer worked in his project, but now it felt like his mind was blank, empty, hollow.

If there was only some equation that could solve his problems!

But it looked like Aster wasn’t fazed by his sudden silence and awkward answering. Or maybe he was, but he was also very good at hiding it. Anyway Hiccup was very glad and totally overjoyed as the taller boy continued their small conversation.

“That’s good. He need someone to teach him, but I suspect that he is a terrible student.” Aster smirked, glancing at Jack next to him.

Jack, who until now was balancing his pen between his nose and upper lip, snapped up and glared at the screen.

“It’s because you’re a bad teacher!” He yelled like it could answer all questions in the world.

And probably between them it kind of did. Maybe Aster had taught Jack something? Oh, yeah, totally possible as Aster was also one of the best students in their school.

“I am not! You just can’t listen!”

“I can’t listen? I can’t listen?! You couldn’t explain it simple enough for me. You know what they say!? If you cannot explain it in the simple way you do not understand it!”

Oh, wow Hiccup felt impressed that Jack knew this adage.

“It’s not my fault this was too complicated to explain it in easy way! You’re a bad listener!”

Maybe he should give his three words to this conversation?

“Well, if my word matter at all I don’t think Jack is that bad…”

The sudden silence was even more awkward than his previous stutter performance. And the responses were quite amusing.

Aster looked at him with disbelieve circling around his eyes, which blinked like his mind couldn’t really understand what Hiccup had actually spoken. His mouth went down and it kind of felt like Aster was petrified.

Jack on the other hand… had the most stupid smirk Hiccup had ever seen. He wasn’t sure if human’s muscles were able to stretch to this point, but there it was, overthrowing his theory.

“See, listen to Hiccup, he is smart! You can trust him!”

And somehow Jack’s hand landed on his head, ruffling his hair quite heavily and making his glasses slip down.

“Yeah, right… maybe he is just good at explaining?” Aster said, shaking his head a little, like he wanted to return to the right tracks.

Was it a compliment? Was it? Probably not, but Hiccup face felt even warmer now. He hoped that it wasn’t visible, but who was he kidding…

Jack’s palm finally left his hair alone (it was quite heavy) and landed on the desk.

“Hey, don’t take my happiness away from me!” Then he turned to the smaller teen and raised his hands. “Not that I don’t agree with him.”

Hiccup chuckled, feeling as some of the tension flew away. This wasn’t so bad.

“Okay, I’ll be going. I just wanted to ask.” He lifted his hand and put two fingers near his temple. “I’ll catch you later then!”

“Yeah, go away loser!”

“B-bye!”

Aster saluted them. The video chat ended, leaving them alone.

It was finally over. Now his racing heart could finally calm down. For the last few minutes it was trashing around his ribcage. Almost like moving around sodium on the surface of water, only faster*.

Hiccup sighed heavily, the air leaving his mouth in a whistle as he brushed away the fringe from his head. He still could feel the heat radiating from his cheeks. But it was over. No more stress…

He turned to ask Jack if they should do few more exercises. Well, he wanted to ask him, but words died on his tongue as he saw the devilish smirk playing on the school’s star pale lips.

“What?” Hiccup asked, lifting his eyebrow.

And then Jack had the guts to mimic Hiccup’s behavior from the last few minutes in this weird high-pitched voice and flying everywhere hands.

“ _U-uh, we d-did nothing Aster! Um, yeah Aster! B-Bye Aster!_ ”

He didn’t sound like that! Not to mention he wasn’t doing anything with his hands! To be honest, he clenched them on his pants to not flail them around too much!

But this was bad. Hiccup knew where this was going and he didn’t like it! Not even a bit! No, no, no, no, no!

With as monotone voice as he could, he squealed a simple:

“Your point?”

And Jack put his elbow on the desk, leaned his head on his palm and stared at him, wrinkling his nose:

“I can smell crush from miles~”

Yep, this actually was happening. Odin save him, possible pretty fast.

Hiccup looked away, but still felt as his cheeks got warmer and warmer. It wasn’t enough that he had made an embarrassment of himself just few minutes ago in front of Aster. Now Jack deduced what Hiccup was feeling and was poking it at him!

“I-I don’t have a crush…” The mumble that left his lips was faint and shaky, even Hiccup could feel it was a lie. Ha, and he though Jack was bad at lying. Guess he was the king of it.

The white haired teen leaned closer, so much that Hiccup had to back down.

“ _O-oh really_?” Jack mimicked him, the perfect line of his teeth showing up. He looked like a predator hunting his pray.

“Oh yeah, totally have no crush. From where did you even get this idea?”

As Jack moved away, he waved his hands in a giant circle.

“From all of this…”

Hiccup rolled his eyes.

“But you just gestured to all of me.”

“Exactly!” Jack snapped his fingers. He kind of looked like a child that just solved the biggest mystery of his life.

“That didn’t prove anything. You need evidence.” Yeah, Hiccup was slowly turning back on his solid ground, which was science. There needs to be proofs if someone was throwing accusations.

“How about your blush?”

Damn.

Hiccup fiddled with the hem of his sweater as he tried to look as casually as he could.

“It will definitely disappear in few seconds and there won’t be any proofs!”

And then he heard a snapping sound of someone taking a photo. He looked at Jack who was now looking joyfully at his phone.

“Now there is hard evidence. Do you still want to argue? ‘Cause I can do it all day!” Jack put his hands behind his head as he put his foot on desk and pushed himself away, spinning few times. “Just admit it.”

“I do not have a crush on Aster!”

“You definitely do~.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do!”

“No. I. Don’t!”

“Yes. You. Do!”

Hiccup felt something inside of him bubbling with anger as they exchanged the same words for like a hundred times (Hiccup knew that the number wasn’t even close to this, but it felt like that) until the last string inside of him snapped.

“Okay, I do! Now you are happy?”

And Jack, that until now wasn’t facing him, only looking at the opposite wall, turned to him and smirked. Hiccup wanted nothing more than to brush that grin away, probably with concentrated sulfuric acid(VI) and maybe even sandpaper. Just for double pain.

“Very~”

Hiccup life was finally over as he hid his face in his hands.

“Are you gonna make fun of me now?”

He heard squeaking of a moving plastic wheels.

“A little. Can you judge me for that?”

“I kind of can. I’m not making fun of you because of your crush.”

“That because I don’t have one.”

Hiccup groaned. He put his legs on the chair and tried to hid himself between his knees. This day was almost nice until this happened. Now, he even preferred to be doing sedimentation analysis than being stuck with Jack, who now knew about his secret.

Hiccup sighed heavily and this sound came out a little bit muffled – almost like a weird yelp. Not even a second after he had made that noise, he heard a soft, warm whisper next to him. The voice was oddly kind, a little bit hesitant and… so un-Jack that Hiccup looked up.

“Okay, I won’t be making fun of you, so please don’t cry…” The taller boy said, now staring at him with worried eyes.

Did he seriously think Hiccup would cry over that? Well, Jack knowing his secret wasn’t nice, but it wasn’t so bad either to cry over it.

“I wasn’t crying.” Hiccup said, tilting his head to the side.

Jack blinked, taken aback. His furrowed eyebrows relaxed for brief second.

“You weren’t? But just a second ago…” His voice trailed, like he searched for perfect words.

Here was mighty Jackson Overland misjudging his sighing mixed with hiccupping for crying. And getting over worried about it. It was weirdly… nice and kind? But most of all, Hiccup found it adorable that the barely known to him Jack was worried if Hiccup was crying. Even if this was about something as simple as teasing.

Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

“You’re such a worrywart.” Hiccup spoke, smiling a little.

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Jack’s hand, that until now hovered above Hiccup’s shoulder (but was not touching it), moved to his white hair, where it got entangled with his locks. His eyes suddenly darted away from Hiccup’s face “So… It really is Aster?”

“Unfortunately, it is Aster…”

Jack chuckled at that.

For two or three minutes they sat in silence. Jack was looking at something on the screen, but it felt more like he was thinking about something than actually searching for anything. Hiccup, in the meantime, returned to circling exercises (that they should do tomorrow just to be sure) to get his mind off this topic.

The tension slowly flew away. His heart calmed down, returning to its normal beating rhythm.

And when Hiccup though that Jack left this topic for good and he opened his mouth to ask if they should continue, Jack mumbled quietly:

“Do you want help with Aster?”

Well, he didn’t expect that, that’s for sure. Was he thinking about it while he was so silent? Jack really was a gentle person inside. Incredibly gentle.

Hiccup shook his head nevertheless.

“No thanks. This is probably just dumb crush that will disappear sooner or later.” Hiccup really hoped it will be sooner, because it was definitely destroying his life right now. Quieter, he murmured to himself. “It’s not like I have a chance anyway.” And just to cover it quickly, he looked at Jack. “But thanks for the proposition… It was nice…”

Jack nudged his arm as he took the book away from his hands.

“Hey, I’m always a nice guy.” He said, the typical smirk returning to his lips. “But seriously if you need help I can always do something.”

“No I’m fine. Really. But thanks…”

Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Could this story can get more cliché? You bet xD! And another long chapter. Seriously, I want to make them shorter, but really can't as I am not able to put everything I want in shorter space D: I planned this story to be shorter, but I guess this won't happen xD.
> 
> And about Dagur and Heather. I feel so bad for making them act like that… all bad or bitchy. It is hard for me because I know they have reasons for being/acting like that, but I can't show them just yet. So please bear with their behavior a little bit longer. Everything had its reason here. Or at least I hope I will be able to show all of them.
> 
> And quick answers:
> 
> vala411 - OMG, thank youuuuuuu :3!
> 
> blitz_lili - Gosh, it really means a lot to me as english isn't my native language and I always re-read my stories many times to be sure that I didn't make too many mistakes D: So I'm so glad that you liked it :3. I can't wait to write those twist and turns ('cause they will definitelly happen!!!). Hope you enjoyed this chapter too! :3
> 
> Syndeh - Ahh the possibilities xD So many ideas xDDDD. I'm very happy that you liked it =D!
> 
> Anubarack - Sorry but I snorted so hard xDDDDDDDD.
> 
> And some nerdy fact to share with friends:
> 
> *Höppler viscometer – is an instrument used to measure the viscosity of a fluid. And to be honest… it really is a tube with oil and metal ball inside. While working with it you turn up the temperature, turn around the tube and measure how fast the ball will fall down.
> 
> *Finding electron on the orbital is almost impossible – I didn't hear about any ways to calculate those places. Only Schrödinger equation allow us to have a small outlook on it, but also not fully as it works only on atom of hydrogen.
> 
> *Magnesium ribbon – it flares with this really bright light. Just watch it on youtube :3.
> 
> *Mary (Mary Gibbs) – or as you all know her as Boo from Monster Inc. =D I decided to put some familiar characters here. I think most of you recognize Rusell mentioned later (from Up).
> 
> *Limits – I am not sure if this is how it is called in English. I mean in Poland we just call them limes. But wiki told me that I should use word limits, so who I am to judge xD?! Anyway in limits we calculate borders of function.
> 
> *Sodium on the surface of water – seriously, it acts crazy on it D:! Also watch it on youtube.
> 
> *Gases comparisons – seriously, I don't know why I put so many gases comparisons in this chapter. xD I have no explanation for it.
> 
> And I started to wonder… Did someone noticed that while writing from Hiccup's point of view I am trying to use many scientific analogies and comparison, while when I write as Jack I am trying to use more natural comparisons (related to the nature)?
> 
> Anyway thank you for reading this chapter. Hope to see you soon =D! Have an amazing day!


	3. Third Newton’s law of motion

**Third Newton’s law of motion** \- When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body.

 

„You’re a real life savior!” Jack sighed as he stared at the ceiling.

Papers were scattered everywhere, almost all of them covered in signs, letters and numbers. There was also a lot of red circles marking the correct answers. It came to this that the percent of the correct ones was close to ninety two.

“Hey, don’t lose your guard. We still have a lot to work on.”

Jack groaned. That sound made Hiccup feel a little bit better.

It was already Sunday and it was the fifth hour of their small tutoring lessons that day. Emma – Jack’s sister – only bugged them for half an hour by swinging on the opened door. Well, to tell the truth, she wasn’t bugging Hiccup at all as she was only telling him the most embarrassing stories of Jack’s childhood. So in the end Jack suffered the most.

She only walked away when the said boy bribed her with ice creams. Hiccup felt a little bit bad and amused in the end (well, he guessed that Jack didn’t want anyone to know he was parading with a bra on his head and claiming that he was an alien when he was ten years old).

“But I actually feel like I’m starting to understand those things.”

“Why did you even pick up such advanced math for your level?” Hiccup asked, moving away and grabbing the cup with now only warm coffee. The cup weirdly said ‘Merry Christmas’. Somehow it looked like the Overland’s household had only Christmas’ cups.

The white haired boy shrugged. He wasn’t wearing his typical baby blue blouse, but it hung on the back of the chair.

“I probably wanted to be in the same class with Tooth and Aster. Plus earlier we didn’t have Professor Black for a teacher.”

Hiccup nodded. Yep, Professor Black could be pretty demanding and strict, however he was never unjust to any student. Maybe a little bit mean and dark, but well… this is how he probably was. Not everyone had to like him. Hiccup felt weird form of respect towards him.

“Reasonable enough.”

“And you, why you have such advanced math?” Jack asked the same question in return. He grabbed the pen with which he was writing and balanced it on his mouth.

“I just like it and without it, it is hard to understand some formulas and do some experiments. Even if you build something you have to make a lot of calculations.”

“Like what?”

“Like when you rivet something you have to calculate the strength limit for the connection, so it doesn’t snap suddenly.”

“Seems complicated…” The pen rolled down from Jack’s face onto the desk. He glared at it, looking like he was wounded that the pen rolled away from him.

“It isn’t if you understand it.”

Jack smiled under his nose, as he started to stock paper in nice piles.

“Let’s just assume I don’t understand. It will be easier that way.” He said, looking through some sheets.

“You just did like a hundred examples of limits, I think you can understand a lot actually.” Hiccup took a sip of his coffee. It was the only thing that helped him cope with Math on Sunday. He maybe liked science, but there were some boundaries. No pun intended with what they were doing just some minutes ago.

Jack stopped as he put away the piles.

“I don’t know.” Came the soft murmur.

That was unusual. Jack was always in the middle of attention, almost always seeking it, even if someone just glanced in his direction. It felt like he was an engine running on power of people noticing him. Always loud, always energetic, always happy.

“For someone who is almost always surrounded by people, you seem very… insecure about yourself?” Hiccup asked slowly, not really knowing if he wasn’t stepping on some forbidden territory. But heck, if it was some inadequate topic then Jack would tell him about that, right?

“You think?” The taller boy turned to him, looking Hiccup right in the eyes.

Jack often did that. Whenever he was speaking, he was looking right at someone, right into someone’s eyes. Hiccup often tried to hold the stare, because it was something that you should do in conversations. But there was something different in Jack looking at people… Or maybe it was only at him? (Wasn’t it a little selfish to say that?) Hiccup couldn’t quite put his mind on it.

Now, it felt like Jack wanted to send some kind of message through his blue irises. Like there wasn’t enough words in his brain, or maybe even in every dictionary, to really tell what was bugging him. But this was just a hunch, because as soon as Hiccup saw this something different in his eyes, this encrypted password, this one unique in the world formula, it was gone. Maybe it was just a hologram in the end?

Hiccup didn’t know how to answer, any reply was bad in his mind, so he decided to change the topic. They weren’t even best friends, he shouldn’t worry about it.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

Jack didn’t comment this sudden change.

“Sure, go on.”

Astrid couldn’t stop bugging him yesterday, because of the fact that he still didn’t ask Jack about the party, so now was his chance. There was a possibility Jack would say no. Hiccup really wanted for him to say no actually.

“My friends were bugging me to introduce you to them on their party this Friday. And I promised them that I will ask you…” He looked at the window. Oh, it was so interesting suddenly. “You don’t have to say yes to going there with me.” Hiccup really hoped it would happen. “But yeah, I just wanted to ask.”

Jack hummed loudly.

“So when you said ‘this Friday party’, did you maybe mean the party at the twins?”

Hiccup turned around in Jack’s chair.

“Um, yeah. You mean Ruffnut and Tuffnut, right?” Hiccup blinked. “I mean, parties aren’t my thing, but they were whining on skype to bring you and yeah…”

Jack smiled at him. Seriously, how could he smile for so long. Wasn’t his face hurt because of that?

“Sure I will go. It sounds like fun. I actually wanted to ask you the same thing.”

“Really?” Hiccup was a little taken aback.

“Yeah, Heather also insisted to meet you there and I thought ‘why not’.” Jack scratched the back of his head. “We can always… pretend to look like we are in a relationship there and hope she will leave me behind.”

Hiccup only knew who Heather was, he never met her face to face. Dagur was on his tail almost every day, so it was hard to not know with whom he was related. Now that Hiccup thought about it, it was kind of funny. Here was Hiccup having problem with Dagur and there was Jack having problem with Heather.

“Yeah, okay. Just you know…”

“To your limits, I know.” Jack lifted his hands in protecting manner while sending him a small smirk.

“Thanks.” Hiccup murmured and brushed one auburn lock behind his ear.

Yep, Hiccup was terrible with human interactions. It was almost amazing that he somehow accepted Astrid’s hugs (that almost always crushed his lungs), but beside that, it was all a nope territory for him. Of course, he thought about holding hands or maybe even kissing with… you know… Aster, but this was totally different. Not to mention Dagur cured him well from all this touching business for definitely some time.

“We should think about some kind of signal.” Jack suddenly proposed with the excitement accenting his voice.

“Signal?” Did Hiccup hear right?

The taller boy beamed. His eyes shone with some kind of pride.

“Yup, so I will know when to step away when I’ll be too pushy.”

Hiccup smirked at him.

“Hmm good to know you were planning that.”

“Hey, just because you don’t like touching other people and vice versa, it doesn’t mean everyone else doesn’t like it too.” Jack pointed his finger at him, almost pinning it right into Hiccup’s chest. This was supposed to be a scold, but with the happy tone it felt more like a whine. “I, for example, like it. But okay, never mind, this idea still stands, right?”

Hiccup nodded as he mulled over this concept in his head. It could be actually pretty useful. This way they can communicate without words.

“Yeah, I think it’s cool actually. But this should be something simple.” Gears in his head slowly started to move, circle around with a squeaking sound. “Yet something natural.”

“And something that pairs would definitely do.” Jack put his pen down and started to drum it on the desk. “Maybe something like a slight shove?”

“Maybe… but what if there will be a lot of people around? We will be shoving each other a lot then.” There was a clanking sound inside his ears. “How about a small kick?”

Throwing his head back, Jack laughed heartily.

“This was supposed to be something pairs do…” He said, between gasps of air when he finally finished chuckling.

Ugh, Hiccup could feel his cheek getting warmer.

“They sometimes kick each other.” He mumbled quietly. Gears stopped for brief second. They were only twitching, like they didn’t know if they should move or not.

Jack brushed his eyes, hummed and tapped the desk three times.

“Okay, maybe they do it sometimes, but not without a reason. A visible reason, so this idea is out. Besides, I don’t want you kicking me all the time.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes, the machinery inside his head began moving again.

“How about ruffling hair?” Jack spoke again. “No wait, I often do that without reason, scratch that. Maybe some hand signal?”

“Yeah, because suddenly showing signs with your hand will not be suspicious.” Clank, buzz, squeak and gears stopped again. “Maybe very loud sigh?”

“You’re doing it too often, I won’t know which is the correct one, so this is also out.” Okay, yeah, Jack was right. “Let me think…”

For few second - maybe it was even a minute - Jack was contemplating. The silence was only interrupted by him mumbling something to himself. His eyes were closed, hands crossed on his chest as he swirled on his chair. He was doing it a lot. Good for Jack that he didn’t have carpet in his room.

Suddenly Jack stopped moving. Then he turned around, pushed himself closer and with very excited voice shouted:

“I got it!”

“Go on.” Hiccup was actually curious.

Jack rubbed his hands together, smiling to himself.

“How about a simple poke in the cheek? This is something that pairs would do without reason and, not to mention, it is simple enough for us.”

Gears inside his head stopped. Somewhere he heard a clicking sound. Yeah, minimum of touching, yet it was simple to remember and do. This really could work.

“I like it.” Hiccup finally said, feeling the corners of his lips twitching upwards. “We should do it then.”

“See, I’m a genius!” Jack puffed his chest.

Hiccup groaned and chuckled in the same time, which sounded even weird for him. There was something enchanting in seeing Jack getting excited over simple, almost unimportant things. Seriously, this was a child locked inside teenager body.

“Yeah, yeah tell yourself that.”

Jack sent him a grin, very beautiful one, even Hiccup had to admit. Now he understood why girls fawned over him. He definitely had something charming about him. But for now, Hiccup wasn’t sure if this was because of this magical smile or shining eyes.

“I will, Hiccup, I will.”

The auburn haired teen checked the time on his wristwatch. It was actually pretty late. Surprisingly, when he was spending time with Jack it was running weirdly fast, almost unnaturally. Like the velocity was doubled or maybe even tripled. But it was in his favor. They managed  to get through a lot of exercises, even more than the day before. Jack was even able to make few tasks without Hiccup’s help and not even with him beginning to explain. If Hiccup would have a candy then he definitely would give it to Jack, but this was an idea for another day. Maybe he should actually do it to motivate Jack even more…

The roaring voice around the house knocked him out of his dazed state.

“Boys, dinner’s ready!”

It was Jack’s father. They actually met yesterday (Jack introduced him when North returned home) and Hiccup had to say he came to liking that person. He was big, bulky and looked terrifying, but after a second he turned into the most joyful person on this side of Earth. And well… Hiccup will definitely feel the bruises after the bear hug that North gave him.

“We’re going!” Jack shouted back, leaning on the chair. He then turned his head at Hiccup. “We better start moving, before he will come here to take us.”

Hiccup nodded, gathered his things and stood up, flexing his hands above his head. He was sitting in one position for far too long and his muscles screamed for some kind of movement.

They both walked out of the room, then down the stairs. They could already hear a conversation going in the kitchen between North and Emma. When Hiccup and Jack stepped inside, they greeted the rest of residents with smiles. Two plates were already served, waiting patiently for them.

“So how is tutoring going, Hic’cup?” North asked, when boys sat down and grabbed the cutlery. “Jack is as hard as usually?”

“Hey, I’m not that hard to teach!” Jack yelled, putting his fork inside the pasta on the plate. He glanced at it with surprised and quite bewildered look, before he shrugged and lifted it up to his lips.

“Ha, we all know the truth. Don’t try to hide it!” North slurped loudly on his spaghetti.

Emma giggled next to Hiccup, spatting the sauce everywhere on her plate. She even stained the tablecloth, but it felt like neither North nor Jack actually cared for that. So Hiccup decided to leave it too.

“First Bunny, now you. Why are you so mean to me?!” Jack waved his fork in the air. He actually managed to get some of his pasta into his hair now, because of that movement.

“Because you’re easy to tease, that’s why.” Hiccup mumbled, feeling that he couldn’t tear his gaze away from noodles on the teen’s head. Because seriously… this looked ridiculous.

Dinners at Hiccup’s house were almost always silent. Only in the last span of time Stoick actually tried to hold a proper conversation between them. And Hiccup was grateful for this, he really was, but he couldn’t really imagine how long it will take them to be just like Overlands. They were so full of live, so energetic, like there was ongoing exothermic chemical reaction*. They wasn’t even in the dining room for a minute and North and Jack were already bickering about something.

And this felt nice. They were carefree, even with the guest in their house. Heck, they even acted like he was living with them for some time. Maybe because Hiccup was treated like that, he decided to speak.

Yet he was still a tini-tiny bit overthrown by this atmosphere.

It looked like everyone heard him, because Emma next to him snorted and North laughed so hard that his belly started to shake the table.

Jack looked at him with accusing eyes.

“You were supposed to be on my side, not theirs!”

He shrugged.

“I’m on the winning side.” He stated.

And North laughed even harder, to this point where everyone had to grab plates to not let them fall down.

“I like you Hic’cup, you can put Jack in place. Something not everyone can do!” The big man looked at him.

Hiccup felt like the same blue eyes that Jack inherited were drilling right into his soul, gripping it, opening it and reading like an open book. Still it wasn’t a bad feeling, maybe uncomfortable one, but not that bad. So he simply nodded.

“Someone has to.”

Jack only hung his head and murmured:

“Traitor…”

* * *

“So everything went fine? No kissing, no touching?” Astrid nudged Hiccup hard. Even while wearing quite thick jacket, he felt it on his arm.

“No, Astrid, you know me. We’re just friends with benefits!” He said, rolling his eyes and massaging his arm.

“You know that this term mean something totally different?” She looked at him with eyebrows raised high on her forehead.

Only when she had spoken that, Hiccup understood what he had actually said. He knew what this term mean! It was just a misuse of words. Well both he and Jack had benefits form their fake-relationship, but not like that!

“Shut up, it was a misuse of words…” The smaller teen mumbled, covering his mouth with his scarf. Yes, he took it out of the closet today. When he had seen the thermometer outside, he got scared and decided to take precautions to not get ill.

Astrid sent him a smile or more like a predatory grin, accompanied with her glinting eyes. She seriously was having so much fun nowadays.

“Oh, really?” She prolonged the last word, moving even closer. Maybe it was because someone wanted to get pass them.

“Yeah, I’m sure Astrid, and now shush before someone hear you!”

The girl rolled her eyes, then puffed out her cheeks. They were a little red, plus the air came out of her mouth in a small mist. Yep, the winter was definitely around the corner, just waiting to nip at their noses. It didn’t help that Hiccup preferred warm temperature over freezing one. And here he was, in Burgess, where winters were always cold and snowy - very white and very freezing.

“Relax, short stack. Everyone is fuming about you and Jack, no one will care about such trivial things.”

“Great, they could let it go after almost a week.”

Astrid nodded.

“They could, but you know teenagers. We are hungry for hot topics and apparently Jack dating someone is in hot top.”

“It could be anyone in the school, but no!” Hiccup threw his hands in the air. He almost face palmed someone. The man sent him an angry look and Hiccup quickly apologized while reverting his hands. He didn’t want any more problems.

“Is really Jack such a bad choice?” Astrid asked, glaring at the man that passed them.

It was actually good she didn’t look at Hiccup face, because it suddenly froze into confusion. He walked for few seconds looking at nothing, only the concrete beneath their feet.

Well, to tell the truth Jack wasn’t such a bad deal. Okay, at first Hiccup was terrified about the idea of fake-dating Jack. They barely knew each other, not to mention Hiccup, back then, had only the bad image of the boy.

But nowadays, well now he was less against it than few days earlier. Of course he and Jack weren’t best friends, yet… anyone could have stepped inside that bathroom few days ago and it had happened to be Jack. Jack who willingly saved him, badly, but still it counted. Jack who stuck with this lie, even if the whole school was buzzing about it. Jack who treated him normally, not like some kind of nerd. Jack who cared if he didn’t actually push too far.

And Hiccup slowly started to think that he was glad it was Jack who walked in, not someone else.

Astrid turned to him, opened her mouth, maybe to repeat the question or even move to another topic, but she was interrupted by a voice from behind:

“Hey, Hiccup.”

He could literally feel all his muscles tense.

* * *

“So did you really learn all weekend?” Aster asked as he put back on his shirt. His head popped up from the collar with a groan.

Jack was already in clothes and was only waiting for his friend to finish. Aster always took much more time than Jack, but he got used to it.

“Yes, it is so hard to believe?” Jack raised his eyebrow.

“Kind off.” Aster said, but the small ghost of a smile told him that he thought otherwise. It was actually Aster who spent countless sleepless night with Jack before tests just to help him pass.

Jack punched his arm, when his friend finally put on his all clothes and tied his shoes. The rest of their team already went out, so they were the last there. It was still around twenty minutes before classes.

“So how it’s going between you two?” Aster asked when he tried to push his shirt inside his bag while steeping down the stairs.

Some kids were already waiting for their first PE class, talking with each other. These ones didn’t even glance at Jack and Aster, used to them always leaving the last.

“Good, I think. He actually helped me a lot, more than you.” Jack put his hands inside pockets. “Not to mention, he is definitely better at teaching than you!”

Jack took pleasure in seeing Aster grumble something under his nose, probably something not so nice. Jack knew that his taller friend always felt a little bit bad, because he knew he was bad at teaching and well… Jack sometimes liked to rub the salt in his wounds. But only a little bit, not to fully overstep it.

“Plus my family like him. More than me I think.”

At this the gray haired boy chuckled. Aster knew his father and sister too well.

“Oh yeah, they are a riot.” He patted the white haired teen on the back. “But look at the bright side, you didn’t come out naked from the bathroom!”

Jack shuddered. Yeah, this was awfully nice of his sister to actually call him and not let him wander around the house with only a towel around his waist (which he did too often).

“Yeah, yeah this would be a beautiful impression, wouldn’t it?” He sighed.

But everything went well this weekend. Weirdly well. Of course his head hurt on the Sunday evening, but it was accompanied also by this fulfilling feeling swimming in his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time he actually spent so much time over learning. And it was quite satisfying.

He couldn’t wait to show Pitch what he got now!

Aster nudged him. When Jack looked at him, he was pointing at something in the distance.

“Isn’t that Hiccup and…”

Jack looked at the point the finger was showing. He indeed saw a small figure standing there with… Astrid, Jack assumed (judging only by the blonde hair swishing in the air). Hiccup was staring at someone and speaking and… he looked kind of angry? Like really his face was pure red and Jack was sure there will soon be steam coming out of his ears.

So Jack looked at this someone the boy was angry at. He felt as his stomach churned and dropped down, like a ton of logs of wood from a very high cliff.

“Let’s speed up…” He murmured as both he and Aster almost ran to them.

They could hear some kind of hyphae of words that were trailed by the wind, running around them like playful kids. Pointing at the taller boy’s chest, Hiccup took a step forward. Astrid moved closer, like she wanted to stand between them. She said something while furrowing her eyebrows.

Dagur, because who else could it be, crossed his hands on his chest as he smirked. They were so close now that if Jack wanted to he could shout to get their attention. But well he decided for some kind of action.

Jack knew it would be too good for Dagur to just left them alone like that. Did that guy doesn’t understand what word ‘no’ mean?

They were now so close, that they could hear what they, or to be more precise Hiccup, was yelling about.

“Don’t you dare call her that! And why do you care what I do with other people?! It’s my own business if I…”

But he wasn’t able to end the sentence as Jack decided to tackle him in a half-hug. The white haired teen quickly put his hand around Hiccup’s waist (trying to place it somewhere comfortable for him) and leaned down, brushing his mouth on his hair. Jack hoped it looked like a small kiss, even though he actually didn’t even touch the skin.

Hiccup, who froze midsentence, stiffened and tried to turn around, but Jack held him steadily, so he was only able to turn his head. And to be honest, Jack felt kind of accomplishment when Hiccup’s body relaxed a little.

It all happened in two or three seconds. Jack wanted it to look like a surprise boyfriend welcome.

“Hey, guys! What is this commotion about?” He really hoped his voice didn’t crack or at least the disruption wasn’t audible to anyone but him. He even graced them with a smile, fake one, but still it was a smile.

Hiccup closed his mouth, that until now hung open, like a fish on the shore. His eyes gaped at him, not sure if this was his imagination or Jack really was standing there.

Well, okay, Jack would also be surprised if he would be in the middle of shouting very angrily something and someone else would glomp him, so yeah, Jack couldn’t really blame him.

So he looked at the girl standing next to them, but she also had that fazed look, staring at him, like he was a ghost. She wouldn’t work with him either.

Unfortunately the only one left was Dagur, who was surprisingly also staring at him like he just spurted from the Earth in front of him.

“Okay…” Jack murmured, running his free hand through his white strands. “Someone will tell me what is going on?”

Hiccup shook his head. The auburn hair tickled Jack’s chin while doing so. Viridian eyes focused on him.

“Nothing, let’s go…” He finally mumbled.

Hiccup tried to turn around, but probably found that he was blocked by Jack’s hand that still laid on his waist. He quickly glanced at Jack with one eyebrow lifted. Jack attempted to smile reassuringly.

They both made a circle - weird one, wonky, Jack felt like they both were baby deers, learning to walk – and walked away, away from Dagur and away from this weird commotion.

Aster and Astrid fell into steps with them and they all walked in silence to the front door. Hiccup wiggled few times, maybe because of the hand that Jack still left on his waist.

When they walked inside the school and turned into a corridor on the right, Jack let his hand hung near his body.

“Okay, so now someone will fill me in?”

Astrid behind him sighed.

“It was just Dagur being himself…” She spat, like only speaking his name would leave a sour taste on her tongue.

“Some more details?” Jack insisted, feeling that this simply couldn’t be all. Seriously, Hiccup wouldn’t just start suddenly shouting in the middle of a street for no important reason.

And from the way Astrid’s eyes jumped from him to Hiccup he confirmed his theory. But as soon as girl opened her mouth, Hiccup spoke:

“He insulted Astrid. The rest isn’t worth mentioning.” He said, weirdly emotionless, as he glanced back at his friend.

Astrid shrugged – or more like nodded in the same time as she brushed the fringe away from her eyes. It looked like for a brief second there was a whole conversation between their looks, only understandable for them. Jack wondered if Aster felt so left out as he.

“Anyway thank you for… you know, helping…” Hiccup turned his head back at Jack and the corner of his lips rose a little bit higher. It wasn’t a full smile, maybe a sad grin, but definitely there was a pinch of gratefulness and relaxation in it.

“Don’t mention it. What kind of boyfriend I would be if I wouldn’t help you.” Jack said, trying to make his voice sound cheerful.

“Yeah, definitely a bad one.”

Jack saw as Hiccup glanced back to where Aster was standing, still not saying a single thing. He saw it all as boy’s emerald orbs shone for brief moment and then became dull, as his head moved down. Uh oh. Maybe he shouldn’t mentions boyfriends and things like that near Aster now? Especially after he found out about Hiccup’s small (giant?) crush on his friend.

Which was still beyond his comprehension, but hey… everyone had their own tastes right? And who was Jack to judge.

The small glance Hiccup did was almost unnoticeable. Well at least for people who didn’t know anything. Yet now, it was different. Because for any person that would pass them by Hiccup would be maybe only looking back to check if someone was listening or anything like that. But now Jack understood that he turned around to glance at Aster. Why? He wasn’t sure, yet some part of him inside would do the same. Did Hiccup had done that earlier? Was he stealing glances at Aster when they weren’t looking?

Jack lifted his head. Astrid was staring at him with a mixture of surprise and confusion in her eyes. Jack immediately knew that she was assessing him to check if he knew.

The first bell rang above their heads putting everyone out from their daze. Hiccup coughed nervously as he moved to the girl.

“We’ll be going then. Thank you one more time.” He said, his voice and façade returned to his usual nervously-sarcastic one. With one hand he pushed the glasses higher and they reflected the light shining from the lamp. “Guess I’ll see you after school?”

“Definitely.”

Hiccup nodded and made a small, crooked wave at Aster. He murmured something that sounded like a farewell, but it was drowned by people shouts from the end of the corridor.

Yet Aster answered nevertheless:

“See ya later, Hiccup.”

Hiccup quickly turned around. Maybe he tried to hide his embarrassed face that suddenly was colored in red paint? Astrid waved at them both, then patted Hiccup on the back. They both walked away, but Jack could swear he heard girl snickering from behind the corner. So he was probably right.

They also decided to finally go to their class.

“What do you think this was all about? Beside the case about Astrid.” Aster asked when they shuffled their feet to their lockers to grab needed notebooks. Or at least Aster wanted to do it. Jack had one notebook for most of the subjects.

“I don’t know.” Jack looked under Aster’s arm at his locker, but everything was tidy. Not a single speck of dust, not a single alone paper. Damn, he was such a perfectionist. He wondered if Hiccup’s locker also looked like that.

“You both didn’t talk about Dagur?” There was some doubt swimming in Aster’s mumbled sentence. He finally took his giant notebook and put it in his bag pack.

“We kind of did… a little…” Jack shrugged while moving away, allowing his friend to lock the door. “He looks like he doesn’t like to talk about Dagur, so you know…”

Aster coed sweetly. That sound made Jack cringe. Seriously, that was scary.

“Aww, baby Jack really cares about others. And I thought the only thing you care about are your small pranks.”

“Do you want another chocolate on your seat?” Jack quickly asked. He enjoyed as the smile flowed away from his friend’s face. “Didn’t think so.”

Jack couldn’t count how many times people had told him that he was a worrywart. But he had to admit, each and every one spoke the truth.

Yet he answered honestly. Hiccup did look like he tried to avoid this topic as much as he could, almost like Dagur could sting him by only mentioning him. Jack guessed that was because it brought unwanted memories. But judging by today commotion, maybe the memories were worse than Jack at first thought. Maybe he should talk about it with him?

They were boyfriends, right? Fake ones, but still.

* * *

“He can go? Cool!” The voice on the other side yelled something that suspiciously sounded like ‘Hiccup is taking him to our party!’. Ugh, he could have stayed silent about it and just show up with Jack at his side. But noooo, he had to say it. “Soo remember, the party starts at 8 p.m.!”

“I know, I know, you have sent like… ten messages to me already…” Hiccup kicked the rock that was laying on the ground as he walked near the entrance to the school. “Um hey, can I ask you who will be there?”

There was a long humming sound coming from the other end. Then after a second Tuffnut moved the phone away from his ear and repeated the question to his sister.

Hiccup sighed, took off his glasses and looked at the glass under different angles to see how dirty they were. Too dirty. He started to wipe them with the hem of his sweater, still holding onto his phone with his head and arm.

“She doesn’t know.” Tuffnut finally said.

“And you?”

“I also don’t know.”

So much for knowing it. Hiccup didn’t actually expect to get a proper answer, but it would be very nice to know it.

“Never mind then.”

“Hiccup!”

He looked up at the posture of the white haired boy waving at him. It was his cue to end this call.

“Was that Jackson Overland?” And everything literally crashed down. It looked like somehow Ruffnut get ahold of her brother’s phone. “Hey, was it him? Say he…”

“I gotta go, bye!” Hiccup didn’t know he was able to end calls as quick as he did it now. It was almost like he suddenly got the ability to move his fingers with a speed of light, even thought it was impossible.

He didn’t want Jack to hear his friends yelling… well, definitely inappropriate comments. The time for that would be at the party. And huh boy, Hiccup could already feel the headache coming by just thinking about it.

He wasn’t a party person, but somehow he was almost on every Ruffnut and Tuffnut’s party, because they literally were often taking him there by force, so after the fifth time he learned to go there by himself. And it wasn’t so bad after a while, he just had to take book and hid in some corner to read.

Not counting few… bad incidents that he wanted to forget about, but Snoutlout made a great job at reminding him whenever they met. It was like a badly counted measurement when you already gave the report to the teacher. You know you did something wrong, but can do nothing about it now.

Hiccup pocketed his phone as Jack stopped near him.

“You ready?”

“Sure…”

His phone actually buzzed six times when they were walking to Jack’s home, but he ignored every try. But Jack didn’t, as every time he heard it, he glanced suspiciously at his pants. Well, that didn’t look weird at all.

“You can always pick it up.” He finally said when they stopped and waited for the light to turn green. “I don’t mind.”

“It’s just twins trying to call me to probably say something…” Perverted, he added in his mind.

Jack hummed, his hand playing with a shoelace hanging from his hoodie.

“My mind still can’t comprehend that you are friends with the twins.” He finally said, but his voice didn’t hold any menace. He was clearly only surprised. “Don’t get it wrong. But you and Astrid are so calm… and twins are…”

And Hiccup didn’t blame him for that. Their friendship was also a mystery to him.

“Crazy? Loud? Literally everywhere?” Hiccup counted, his lips moved higher with every word leaving his mouth.

Hiccup had to agree with Jack nevertheless. They were literally like two different substances, like metal and nonmetal, like cation and anion, like substitution and elimination. It was surprising how well they… cooperated together.

“Yeah, definitely that. It just surprised me.” They both started moving as the light turned green and cars stopped moving with a loud screeching sound. “How did you guys actually start to hang out?”

“I think it was… in the Middle School? Or actually during one holidays when we all went to the same camp and unfortunately were in the same cabin.”

Jack snickered.

“Two weeks in the same room as twins? That must be harsh.”

“It was.” It really was. Hiccup even now shuddered just thinking about it, almost like he was drenched in carbon tetrachloride*. “But it would take me few hours to explain what happened there, but summa summarum we ended being friends.” Weirdly, but it really happened.

“Wow wow such details, much information.”

Hiccup snorted hearing Jack all too happy voice near his ear as they finally crossed the street. When Hiccup turned to him, he had that stupid grin molded to his face. At this point the auburn haired teen was almost sure it was permanently stuck there.

“This is all you need, unless you want to listen what twins did when they were in Middle School.” Hiccup said it, feeling dread slowly climbing up his spine. Seriously, this was the worst and funniest time of his life. “And let me tell you that the half of it is disgusting and the rest inappropriate.”

Jack blinked few times. It looked like some machine shutting off and switching on.

“You know, in the end, I don’t want to know what you did back then.” Jack finally said, playing with one white lock on his nape.

The less he knew the better for literally everyone.

Jack’s house appeared in their line of vision. Hiccup welcome it with almost a sigh. The only thing he had to do today was teach Jack and then maybe finally do something with this project for the upcoming contest (because until now he only did small blueprints). And then he could finally return to his bed. Seriously, this was only the first day of the week, but earlier encounter with Dagur made it seven times worse. It was like a sudden reaction which wasn’t supposed to happen. Hiccup really had to be cursed.

Jack took out keys and opened the door. There was no one home as Jack said earlier that day. His father still had to pick up Emma from school. It was really a shame. Hiccup started to like that mischievous little girl.

Hiccup took off his shoes and in the same time glanced at the boy, that was already bare feet and rummaging through kitchen like excited ion. He started to wonder if Jack also acted like that when he was a kid. Probably yes… judging by the rumors Hiccup heard about Jack’s early pranks.

“Uh, want something quick to eat?” Jack asked. He had his head hidden in the fridge and was already taking out some ingredients.

Hiccup learned on the first visit here that even if he would refuse, he still would have a portion. So he decided to just agree. Plus, he was kind of hungry. The school food wasn’t totally fulfilling nor was it really edible.

“Sure, why not, if this is not a problem.” Hiccup murmured. He moved to the kitchen after Jack.

“Not a problem to a fishbone like you. Seriously, do they even give you food at your house?” Jack took out the frying pan and oil.

“Of course I have food at my house.”

That got Hiccup thinking – he didn’t really talk about his family, nor invited Jack to his house. It’s just didn’t happen. But in comparison to Jack’s own, Hiccup’s household was… plain and boring. There was literally nothing to do and his father… well, he was definitely not as amusing as North. They of course were talking more lately, with Stoick asking him about school, friends and hobbies, but still Overland’s house was in a total different league.

“Do you mind making coffee?”

Hiccup moved to the electric kettle, poured water inside and then switched it on. He found out that Jack liked his coffee with a lot of milk, especially in the cup with a giant fluffy bunny with a Santa’s hat on its head. For himself he took the very first cup that was in the cupboard.

Hiccup was sprinkling the coffee inside, when Jack spoke again:

“So what was that about Dagur?”

He was asking about it. Hiccup knew it was unavoidable. Well, some kind of program inside his head was telling him that Jack would definitely return to this topic. And the program guessed right.

“It was really nothing.” Hiccup finally answered when the kettle switched off. He poured water inside cups.

And it was really nothing. Just few inappropriate sentences. Very inappropriate. It wasn’t like Dagur said something really mean about Hiccup (which he never did actually), Hiccup could even say that it was a childish teasing. But then he mentioned something about Astrid and Hiccup suddenly burst out like a dynamite.

“Really? Because it didn’t seem like nothing to me…” Jack mumbled as he turned arund something that he was frying now.

“It wasn’t something really terrible. It was his usual provocation. And being a little mean to Astrid.” Dagur could refrain from insulting his best-friend definitely.

“What do you call a usual provocation then?”

Hiccup moved to the fridge, took out milk and added it to the coffee.

“You know the typical bad pick-up lines, some of them with sexual context, so yeah.” Now that Hiccup could think it over once again, it really wasn’t much. “The usual.”

“Dagur and pick-up lines? I would give everything to hear them.” Jack chuckled. He moved and took out two plates for himself and his guest.

“Oh really? Because I would happily exchange them for totally different experience.” Hiccup felt the corner of his mouth moving higher, like a function that suddenly decided to rise.

Jack moved to him with two plates with French toasts on them, sprinkled with… basil? Or at least it smelled like that. Hiccup didn’t know a lot about cooking, so he wasn’t sure. But there was one thing he was sure for one hundred percent and it was that Jack’s food was delicious.

They sat in the dinner room and eat it in silence, because both of them were interested in eating. The food disappeared from their plates very quickly. After that they moved to Jack’s room for another learning session.

* * *

“So I guess this is all, I don’t think I will be able to teach you more from this topic.” Hiccup said. His hands moved to gather all his books. He got quite the alarming collection in Jack’s opinion.

“O-okay…”

Hiccup gave him a surprised look, but didn’t say anything as he packed his things.

Jack was nervous. He knew why he was stressed, of course he knew. The last few days he had spent learning, making exercises, old test, reading and tomorrow was the final day. Thursday – the doomsday or the day of the test.

It was already Wednesday evening and the nervousness finally got to him and because of that he stuttered. He was stressed, like really stressed. Even though he knew that he got it, he made so many exercises without errors, there still was something inside of him filling him with doubt.

Because what if he will fail tomorrow? What if he will forget how to do special exercises? What if he will do them wrong? No, no, no, that was out of the question. He can’t do that. He can’t put North down, not to mention Aster, Tooth, Hiccup…

Jack took deep breath and looked at sheets of paper in front of him. He recognized his own handwriting, but suddenly the numbers seemed like a foreign language to him. Oh no, no, no, brain can’t fail him now. He remembers it, right? Right?

He got it, he know it and tomorrow everything would be fine. At least he hoped. But what if… No? Maybe? Yes?

His hand moved to his hair where it got entangled with his white locks. It felt like he didn’t brush them, but he did. Now it didn’t matter as he nervously circled the lock on his finger.

What was he supposed to do when he got nervous? Breathe? Yes, take big, deep breathes! Then count in his head. One, two three, one, two, three, One…the limes from exponential function is… two…

“Jack, hey, Jack!”

He blinked confused at the sudden hand that appeared in his line of vision, like dolphin that emerged from water. It took Jack two seconds to fully comprehend it was Hiccup who was trying to get his attention.

“Y-yeah?”

Hiccup stared at him, his eyebrows furrowed and nose scrunched – the movement made the glasses slip a little bit from his button nose, but it looked like Hiccup didn’t even notice it. The intense gaze was slowly drilling holes inside of Jack, almost like a woodpecker checking the trunk.

“Do you maybe… want to watch something?” Hiccup finally asked, very unsure. His voice wasn’t very loud and words were somehow glued together.

Jack stared at him with bewildered look.

“What?” Oh, very smart, but the word just left his lips without thinking.

Hiccup looked abashed for a second. His cheeks turned pink and he finally pushed his glasses higher. His eyes wandered around the room for some time.

“I mean… you look nervous, so I thought that you need something to relax and so… movies…” He bit his lip as he started to mumble the last few words.

Jack felt as the jumping heart started to slow down, like it was stopping after crossing a finish line.

“But well never mind that…”

“No!” Jack almost shouted and it made Hiccup jump in his place. Jack’s hand returned to his jeans , leaving his hair alone. “This is a good idea.”

Hiccup only beamed in return.

They decided on _Finding Nemo_. Jack had watched it few times already, so he didn’t have to really think while watching it and Hiccup hadn’t seen it (which made Jack touch his chest and in very astonished voice ask ‘What?’). They made themselves tea and Jack made small snacks to crunch onto while watching.

And he had to say that… it was really a good idea. After fifteen minutes he slowly started to forget about the stress. The image of ultimate failure dissolved after half an hour. His muscles relaxed, the heart returned to normal beating rhythm, the natural smile reappeared on his face. Not to mention Hiccup’s comments helped a lot.

They were sitting on chairs in front of the monitor where the movie was playing. Hiccup had his feet on the chair and now looked literally like a tiny ball. Even though he pointed out mistakes (he was mostly concerned how fish could talk underwater when the water was putting greater resistance to sound waves than air), he looked totally enthralled by the movie. Just like a small kid. He even almost cried when the supposedly death scene came, but Hiccup covered it by taking his glasses off and cleaning them.

And after an hour and a half Jack felt that all the tension flew away from his body. He took a deep breath – his lungs felt lighter than earlier when all this weight was taken away.

So when the movie finally ended, it was pretty late. Not so late that Jack couldn’t spend few hours on the computer talking with friends that were bugging him on Facebook, but it was so late that it was already dark outside.

Hiccup started to collect the rest of his things. When he finished, he checked the phone and then looked out of the window with a sigh. They both went down, where Emma and North were doing homework in the living room.

“Oh, you’re going already?” The man asked when Hiccup and Jack passed the opened door to the room where they were sitting.

“Um, yeah, it’s pretty late.” Hiccup mumbled, his eyes wandered from the mighty posture of Jack’s father to Emma.

Jack saw that his sister pouted miserably, as she stood up from her chair slowly.

“Do you really need to go?” She whined, looking up at him.

Hiccup shuffled his weight to another leg. He looked like a newborn penguin that just started learning how to walk. He even wavered to one side. Weird.

“Yeah.” He responded.

“I’m going to walk him home.” Jack said, looking at his father.

North nodded, his face lightened up by his everlasting smile.

“Take care then!”

They moved to the front door where they both put on their shoes and jackets. Lately it was getting colder and colder, which made Jack happier and happier. He couldn’t wait to finally see the first snow of this year. Jack opened door for Hiccup and they both went out.

They walked in silence, with street lamps lightening the road for them. He knew moreover where Hiccup lived, because they talked about it – or more like exchanged the basic information about themselves in case someone would ask - but he still allowed Hiccup to lead the way.

He was in the middle of avoiding every line on the pavement when Hiccup spoke:

“You don’t have to walk me back…” He said, but for a second Jack almost thought it was only wind whispering those words, because the voice was very quiet.

Hiccup wasn’t looking at him, he was intrigued by the ground beneath his feet.

“But I want to. You helped me a lot.” And it was the truth. Not to mention he didn’t want Hiccup walking alone in the dark. Dagur didn’t live too far away and somehow the idea of them suddenly meeting (when Dagur was known for staying out late) wasn’t too appealing.

They were boyfriends, right? Fake ones, but there was slowly the small sprout of friendship growing between them. Or at least this was how Jack felt. He was talking more freely with Hiccup now, it wasn’t the typical robot dialogue between them, but a normal light conversation between friends. Of course, they didn’t share some deep secrets, but maybe the time for this will come in some future.

“It was nothing.”

It definitely wasn’t nothing. He helped Jack a lot, not to mention he even proposed to watch movies to subside Jack’s sudden nervousness. So this was definitely not nothing.

“For me it was definitely something.” Jack glanced as Hiccup smiled under his nose, but still didn’t lift his head.

They were alone, so Jack decided to brush this topic.

“About Friday party…” Jack started and when he heard a hum from his side he decided to continue. “We can pick you up with Aster and Tooth.”

Just hearing this name made Hiccup jumpy. Jack could see literally as his arms suddenly tensed and they remained like that for few more seconds. He was seriously in this too deep if even just hearing Aster’s name made him so fidgety. And Aster was totally not conscious of that. It was stupidly incredible. Maybe Jack should signal this somehow to Aster? But Hiccup said he didn’t want any help, that this was some simple crush. But for Jack it looked like it was something much more heavier.

Hiccup was a decent guy, a nerd, but so was his best friend. They would make quite… good pair. Aster was always straightforward, intelligent, smart, the same as Hiccup. Not to mention they definitely had many common topics (as could be seen by their talk about… this tube with metal ball - whatever it was called).

“Okay, but I will definitely go with Astrid. You think you have room for two?”

Jack imagined Aster’s car in his head. It would definitely hold all five of them together with no problem.

“Yeah, definitely. Should I send you the time on Friday?”

Hiccup nodded, his arms now fully relaxed, although his gaze was still jumping from place to place.

“Sure.” Hiccup said, sending Jack a half smile shadowed by the lamps.

Jack grinned. He was actually pretty excited to go. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were known for throwing out the weirdest and craziest parties in the whole Burgess and because of that he was surprised to hear Hiccup asking him about this party. However Jack still couldn’t imagine Hiccup drinking or dancing in the middle of the room. He was probably the type to hide in the corner and wait till the party would end. But not this time.

However, first he had to write tomorrow test. Then he can party all night long. Which reminded him that he still didn’t thank properly Hiccup for what he had done. Should he buy him some box of chocolates? Book?

“Hey Hic…” He bit his tongue midway and Hiccup name was shortened. But it looked like the boy didn’t even hear it or care as he only looked at him, allowing to continue. “Thanks.”

“For what?” Hiccup blinked, looking weirdly surprised.

“You know… about teaching me and calming me when I got into that nervous zone.” Jack moved his hand while he spoke, but they didn’t help him to show what he really meant.

“Oh this?” Hiccup pushed his glasses higher. “Well… when I’m stressed I always watch something to get my mind off things and I thought it would work for you too. I understand how scary Professor Black can be.” He said and sent him a reassuring smile.

Professor Black definitely could be terrifying when he wanted to. Sometimes it took only a glance to shut Jack and other people off. No wonder Math classes were the most silent ones. No one even dared to speak on them.

“Still thank you…” Jack scratched the back of his head. He looked up and noticed that they were already on the correct street. Now he only had to follow Hiccup to his home.

“Really… don’t mention it…” And again Hiccup turned his head to the ground. He looked like he wasn’t too comfortable with Jack’s thanks. But now it was the only thing Jack could do in exchange.

Or could he…

Aster and Hiccup would make a really good pair. And Jack knew that Aster didn’t really care for gender (just like Jack), so Hiccup definitely had chance. The only problem was that Aster never… showed interest in anyone. Or maybe he was very good at hiding it. Yet if Jack would play their cards right…

In that way he wouldn’t be helping Hiccup, but he would he helping Aster, right? So it was a win-win situation for everyone. Now he only need to do it somehow without Hiccup noticing it, because Aster was blind for such things (he didn’t even notice Hiccup obvious crush on him).

“I live here. Thank you for walking me back.”

Jack snapped his head up to look at the one-family house standing proudly on the corner of the street they were currently passing. The lights coming from windows were dimmed by the curtain, but it looked like someone was home. Probably his father.

“No problem. It was a pleasure.” Jack said. He put his hands inside his pocket.

The auburn haired boy pushed his backpack higher and sent him a skeptical look. They didn’t talk too much during their small walk here, but it still wasn’t bad. Jack enjoyed those small conversations.

Hiccup moved to the front door. Jack noticed that while walking up the stairs he was weirdly putting more weight on his right leg than left. Or maybe it was only Jack’s imagination? He was already tired due to all learning and his eyes were probably exhausted too.

Jack was about to turn around, when he heard the boy’s yell:

“Hey Jack!”

He turned around. Hiccup was looking at him with half opened door.

“Send me a message after tomorrow test.”

“Sure do, Captain!”

* * *

Hiccup didn’t know why, but he was nervous. Well that was wrong way of thinking. He knew why he was nervous, but he couldn’t understand exactly why he was feeling like that. He was stressed over Jack’s test. But this wasn’t logical. They weren’t so close friends for him to be so nervous over Jack. Or maybe they kind of were? Maybe Jack’s nervousness was exchanged in some kind of weird, chemical reaction and now Hiccup got it?

But if this meant that Jack would pass his test then he could cope with it for few more minutes. He had Chemistry, so he didn’t have to listen too much.

Hiccup stared at his wristwatch where the pendulum slowly moved down to rise up, a never ending cycle, but for him it felt like the time wasn’t moving at all. The thin black lines circled around the clock face anyway. He only had to see them circle it at least… twenty nine more times. Ugh great…

So when finally (finally!) the hand of the clock finished the twenty-ninth lap and the ball rang above their heads, he welcomed the short break with a sigh. Even though he waited for it all this time, he packed himself slowly and waited till everyone would go out from the classroom. He wasn’t the type to run to the door and push pass people. Too much contact and someone could crush him. No thank you.

When he finally left the classroom, Astrid was waiting for him with a scowl.

“You couldn’t be slower?”

“I could. Next time I will.” He quickly replied and stared at the roll of her eyes with amusement.

They walked to their next classroom that was on totally opposite side of the building. Astrid talked about her last lessons and how some dude just couldn’t answer some question, when Hiccup finally felt vibrations in his pants.

He maybe looked too eager to just read a message as he was rummaging through his pants, but he was curious!

“You okay?” Astrid asked, but he paid her no mind. He fished the phone out and brushed the screen to read the message.

It was from Jack as he expected, but he could already heard the loud ringing sound inside his chest and head when he opened it.

_I answered all of them ;D! Even Pitch was surprised when I gave it to him! xD_

Something heavy fell from his heart, freeing his lungs that were finally able to breathe freely. Seriously, worrying over his own exams was one thing, but stressing over other people tests was totally different.

“Hey? Why are you grinning?” Astrid nudged his arm as she floated above him, trying to see the screen.

Hiccup showed his phone in her palm.

“It’s Jack. He just finished the test.”

The girl scanned the message quickly. She returned him his phone.

“The test for which you were ‘teaching’ Jack?” She asked, underlining that one word with her sweet voice. She even fluttered her eyes at him. Ugh, what were his friends thinking of him?

“Yes, I was only teaching him.” He stated. Astrid still stared at him but now she was wiggling her eyebrows too. “Astrid! You know I’m not like that!”

Some people looked at them when his voice rose above the crowd. He quickly shut his mouth. More attention. This was what he really needed!

“You know, it is a reverse psychology. I hope that if I suggest something long enough you will finally do it.” She said, returning to her normal walking position. She waved at some girl from her team that passed them. The girl nodded in response, then turned to her friend and whispered something in her ear. Both of them then burst into laughter.

“You know the catch was to probably not tell me about it.” Hiccup lifted his eyebrow at his friend.

“Hush now!” She flipped her braid back. “It will work someday.”

Hiccup shook his head. Not till he was living on this planet.

* * *

“I don’t want to go…” Hiccup mumbled for the thirty-fourth time that afternoon as Astrid was combing his hair and tried to do… well, definitely something with them.

“Stop moaning and give me the hair spray!”

Hiccup reached with his hand and took the long bottle. Astrid grabbed it and sprayed unholy amount of it on his hair. He started to cough wildly. Seriously, how girls could live with it every day!?

“Why are you doing it to me, Astrid?” He asked, inhaling the sweet fresh oxygen when the particles of alcohol mixed with the air. “You never cared how I looked on those stupid parties earlier!”

“But now you’re going with Jack and he always look nice. You can’t just show with some scrawny t-shirt and used pants.” Astrid rolled her eyes.

“Hey! I always do that!”

“Not today!” She yelled, literally into his ear as she straightened painfully one of his curled locks on the head. It looked like it was a final touch, because she hummed happily under her nose when she turned him around and looked at him. “I think you look presentable.”

Hiccup reached and took glasses from the nightstand. Toothless, that until now laid on the bed next to them, bumped his arm, so Hiccup scratched the cat’s head. The world became clearer when he put the glasses back on. Astrid took out the mirror from her pocket.

“See for yourself.”

It was hard to see his own reflection in the tiny mirror, so he had to move it to see Astrid’s work under different angle. And for him… he looked literally the same. Seriously. But he knew better not to insult her, plus he didn’t really want to be mean to her. She was doing it for like half an hour now…

“It looks nice.” He decided on the most neutral option which showed that he was conscious of some changes (even if he didn’t see any). Sometimes you only have to nod when Professor show you the brown ring test*, even though you just don’t see any ring.

Astrid lightened up like a burning magnesium ribbon. She even clasped her hands together.

“This is going to be a great party!”

Oh, it would be. Hiccup packed his favourite books and even got additional pens, because last time twins got a hold of them and used it to paint someone face. And they weren’t great artists.

They both heard a loud honk resonating outside the window. For brief moment Hiccup was scared that the glass would shatter, but it gladly withstood the vibrations moving in the air.

“I guess our ride is here.” Hiccup mumbled, gathering his things. He took his backpack very secretly, because he knew as soon as Astrid would see it, he would be forced to leave his baby here.

His Dad knew about the party and what was even worse… he encouraged him to go. Which was bad for Hiccup, because he sometimes wished he could have excuse to simply not go. But Stoick was adamant like a good alloy. He even talked with Astrid about going back late… very late.

So when they were on the first floor, he welcomed them with a smile.

“Have fun!” He shouted from the sofa in the living room.

Hiccup grumbled something under his nose, but Astrid grinned at the giant man.

“Will do, sir!”

Astrid punched him when Hiccup tried to put on his worn tramps and he had to take the new, red ones which he literally hated. He already wanted to be back home. They weren’t even on the party yet!

The car was standing in front of their driveway. Jack was standing there, leaning near the front window and talking with Tooth. She laughed at something he said. She then turned around to repeat it to… Aster. Oh gosh… Hiccup knew he would be driving them, but still seeing only a glimpse of his face made him jittery inside.

Deep breath and here goes nothing!

Fortunately the white haired teenager noticed them as he waved his hand.

“Hey! Ready to go?” He asked when he moved to the back door and opened them.

Astrid literally jumped to the front. She quickly scrambled inside while greeting everyone in very cheerful voice. Her eyes wandered to Hiccup then, waiting expectantly.

Jack made a theatrical bow, smirking under his nose.

Hiccup scoffed, but sat in the middle, with Astrid on his left and Jack on his right.

“Hey Hiccup!” Tooth turned on her seat and smiled widely showing a perfect line of white teeth and… was it a rainbow brace? Hiccup didn’t know she was wearing braces. “How are you? Are you as excited as me to go to the party?!” Her happy tone quickly filled the void around them.

Hiccup shifted nervously.

“I’m fine.” As fine as he could be with this heavy lump on his head, aka a miserable excuse for made hair. “And about the party…” Hiccup felt memories of previous parties flow into his head. “Not really…” He preferred to sit in his room, read some book, maybe skype a little with Fishlegs, drink hot cocoa, make more detailed blueprints of his projects… Everything, just not go to the twins’ party.

“I understand.” Aster said suddenly, as he moved the rearview mirror and his eyes looked at Hiccup through it. “I prefer to be everywhere but here… but these two dragged me.” He pointed with his thumb at giggling Tooth and then chuckling Jack next to Hiccup. “By the way, hey.”

Something in Hiccup’s chest clenched. He was so close - so close - to be on the party without Aster. Of course, he knew that nothing would happen between them, he knew that, but just the image of the tall boy sitting there, being there, maybe even talking with him was enough. So he was quite thankful Jack for dragging Aster here.

Hiccup looked at Jack sitting next to him. The white haired teen sent him a reassuring wink. Oh no, he did it…

“Nah, Hiccup is just scared that twins will give him alcohol and then he once again will…”

Oh no! Abort, abort, abort!

Hiccup didn’t know he could be so fast. But here he was, jumping at his best-friend with lightning speed, covering her mouth with his both hands and yelling something that resembled ‘Astrid, quiet, quiet, quiet!’.

He definitely scared everyone here, beside himself and Astrid.

“Okay… I don’t even want to know what was that about.” Muttered the gray haired teenager in front as he turned blinkers on. He even glanced at the smaller teen few times.

Hiccup never felt more embarrassed. Well, no, there was once a situation when he felt like he just wanted to hide under quilt and never come out. And it was because of the same situation Astrid just almost told everyone about. This was something that only three people in the world knew about - Hiccup, Astrid and the poor one another person.

“But I want. Astrid, hon, would you care to elaborate?” Jack and his oh-so-sweet-fake-tone ringed just near them.

Hiccup sent his best-friend the hardest death glare he could muster, yet the girl’s still covered mouth only twitched in a smirk. However her eyes softened after a second. She was only teasing him, but there were some borders to that.

She slowly shook her head and Hiccup retreated his hands with a sigh.

“Nah, it was in the past.” The blonde girl then sent him an evil stare. “Besides, you, as his boyfriend, might get jealous.” And here came back the evil Astrid.

Jack looked at them confused.

Hiccup had to jump quickly into the conversation, as now even Tooth and Aster were staring at him expectantly. This was the part of his history that he wanted to destroy, probably detonate, pour some hydrofluoric acid on it, just… forget about it.

“Okay, moving away from that topic.” Smooth as sandpaper, but everyone returned to their normal seating position, so hey, it worked.

Well, almost everyone, because Jack nudged his arm, trying to gain his attention.

“And about boyfriends’ topic… did you think about how we should act on the party?” He asked.

Hiccup envied Jack a little that he could talk so easily about this stuff. Of course, there was hunch of pink on his pale cheeks, but it felt like Jack was totally okay with all of that. And maybe he was. But then another question appeared in Hiccup’s head - how was he so okay with pretending to date someone? Especially someone like Hiccup.

“I don’t know.” Hiccup replied, leaning on the backseat while crossing his arms on his chest.

“Maybe we should walk inside while holding hands? And do some small hugs there?” Jack stared at him, eyes shining with more and more ideas rushing through them.

It was sudden and very odd, but Hiccup felt that for a moment time stopped when he looked at those sparkling eyes. They were so full of delight and bliss… not the happiness you feel when you see someone you love, but the clear happiness of helping someone. And it was exactly what it was to Jack. He was helping Hiccup.

So he has to do something in return.

“Sure, wouldn’t hurt.”

They turned into the too familiar street. Even from over a dozen meters away they could hear music blasting off and too cheerful voices of people. Hiccup’s stomach twisted inside of him. Oh, what would he give to be back at his house.

But it was only few hours. Not to mention now he won’t be alone with Astrid, Ruff, Tuff and Snoutlout. There will also be Jack, Aster and Tooth, which was lifting up his spirit a little bit.

Maybe this was a futile wish, but he hoped that Jack would stay by his side for at least some time, because… well, because Hiccup felt a little bit safer this way. Jack saved him already two times. The second time didn’t need saving, but it was nice nevertheless.

In front of the twins’ house were parked already around twenty cars. Few of them stood even on the pavement and there was exactly where Aster parked his own. They exited the vehicle.

Hiccup took deep breath, already smelling the cigarettes and beer. Few people stood on the porch and were laughing with each other while smoking. Ugh, here goes nothing.

“You ready?” Asked Jack next to him when Aster was locking the car.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

They smiled at each other warmly. Like friends that both were in deep mess. Very deep. And very messy.

Jack stepped forward and took Hiccup’s palm. The first thing Hiccup felt was definitely the sudden rush of cold. Jack’s palms were chilly, maybe even gelid, almost like just few seconds ago he was holding ice.

Hiccup must have looked surprised, because when he lifted his head he saw amused Jack.

“My hand are always cold.” He said, like it was the simplest and most common truth.

“Good to know that after we touched.”

The taller boy chuckled and they moved to the front door in a group.

Holding hands was definitely weird. Of course, Hiccup used to do that in kindergarten when he was a child, but now it was different. There wasn’t any butterflies in his stomach, yet he was sweating. He wondered if Jack could feel it. Maybe because he was afraid about what could happen? Will everything work okay? Was Hiccup holding onto Jack’s hand too strong or maybe too weak?

Yet the taller boy looked like it didn’t faze him, like it was natural for him to just hold hands. He even had this small content smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Hiccup slowly started to think that even though it was odd, it wasn’t so bad. After few seconds of nervousness and fear, his tensed muscles started to relax. He even noticed that he was holding onto Jack like he was his last salvation. With embarrassment Hiccup found out that his fingers were clenched tightly around Jack’s palm, yet he said nothing to that.

Hiccup glanced down at their intertwined hands. He couldn’t see if Jack’s palm was red from the force Hiccup used.

“We’re here.” Astrid moved to him, smiling wildly.

“You know we can always turn around and go back?” Hiccup tried really hard to not sound hopeful.

“It’s already too late, mate.” Said Aster from the other side of Jack as he checked his phone probably for the time.

It’s never too late, Hiccup wanted to add, but he found himself not opening his mouth.

The grip on his hand tightened for a brief second - atoms moved closer, warming each other with their small hits.

“Hey, everything will be alright. We’re just going to have a little fun.” Jack moved closer, so his whisper was only heard by Hiccup. His words were accompanied by a warm grin.

Hiccup tried to smile back, but something inside of him told him that this wasn’t some typical party and they all were just going into a beast’s mouth. But whatever twins do, it is also always signed with ‘Danger ahead!’, so Hiccup should get used to that. The key word is ‘should’ because you can’t never guess what twins were thinking.

Tooth, with beaming smile, opened the door.

In an instant Hiccup’s ears were hit with blasting music coming from the living room. They could already hear it outside, but inside it was an Armageddon. The air was in constant vibrations under the sound waves and he immediately felt as his heart started to beat faster. Blazing, colorful lights didn’t quite help, blinding him with their sudden rays of beam directed everywhere, in the same time changing in the rhythm of the music. And if the music and lights weren’t enough, then there were tons of people moving around, most of them, of course, from outside the school. And for that Hiccup was actually glad from the bottom of his heart and never more thankful for twins to moving to college. He recognized few faces that turned to them immediately after they passed the door, but that was all. Good, very good.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Oh, shit, you weren’t joking!”

And back to the reality!

The crowd standing in the corridor stepped aside, making place for hosts of the party.

Tuffnut was staring a little silly at them with one of his eyebrow raised high on his forehead. He quickly returned to the world of living though, as he shook his head. Ruffnut, on the other side, was smiling wildly. Both their cheeks were already red.

If only they knew they were so close to revealing the truth they wouldn’t be so surprised.

“Why should I?” Hiccup asked, as he scrunched his nose. Tuffnut moved closer to him and threw his arm over his shoulders. “Ugh, move away, you stink of alcohol.”

The boy started to laugh, throwing his head back, almost hitting Aster that stood behind him in that process. Ruffnut moved to them, stood on the other side of Jack and leaned on his shoulder with a can of beer in one hand.

“Our baby Hiccup is finally flying away from our nest. It’s cute.” She coed, smirking at them. Her eyes weren’t able to focus on Hiccup, so it jumped from one guest to another.

“No Ruff, stop. You’re not funny.”

The girl giggled as she moved away.

Hiccup wasn’t here even for fifteen minutes and he was already tired, sore, exhausted and angry. The heat spreading around the house was making him sweaty and unfortunately also dizzy. He wanted to move upstairs to hide in a bathroom at the end of corridor. The lock was busted there, but almost no one visited that place as it was very far away from the main center of a party.

“But anyway, I’m glad you could make it.” The girl said, taking a big sip of her beer. “And that I could meet your boyfriend properly.”

Hiccup nodded, not really knowing what to say or add, when suddenly Tuffnut yelled right into his ear. Like seriously, Hiccup could bear with them on normal daily basis, but mixing alcohol with their behavior wasn’t a good idea.

“What was that for?” Hiccup asked pretty angrily, when Astrid only snickered, finally free from being crushed.

“I was just voicing my despair. Well, we already made you drink and you know…”

Oh no… No, no, no, no, no! This was the part of his history that he wanted to forget about. This was only one party mistake and that’s all! So why everyone was reminding him about that?

“No, no, I’m not drinking!” Oh, he could already feel the fluster forming on his warm cheeks. Not to mention he sensed surprised looks directed at his back.

“Don’t crash the party, Hiccup.” Tuffnut tried to make a bad imitation of pleading eyes. Very bad ones. “We had fun back then”

“No, I didn’t have fun back then.” It was a disaster and Hiccup was glad that twins didn’t actually know what really happened.

Hiccup never ever felt such shame and embarrassment than that day. It was poking his mind when he was in a bad mood, always there, whispering him about the events that occurred here, in this very house. Ugh, even now he wanted to curl inside and disappear.

“At least drink one beer with us!” Tuffnut nudged, his smile faltering for few seconds.

“No.”

Tuffnut pouted, but quickly moved his eyes at Jack.

“But you will? Don’t leave us hanging!”

Jack laughed, so both their intertwined hands moved up and down.

“Sure will do. Someone has to drink.” He said heartily.

Tuffnut’s mouth turned into wide grin. Hiccup only rolled his eyes seeing this

“Aw yeah! And I started to think that Hiccup has bad influence on you.”

Hiccup snorted under his nose. With a delight he noticed that Aster behind him did the same. He couldn’t help himself, so he stole a glance back, above Jack’s arm.

Unfortunately the tall boy decided to do the same or maybe he felt that someone was looking at him, because their sights crossed for brief second. It felt like Hiccup’s heart stopped beating for a second, the only thing left was loud beep resonating in his ears and the red light blinking furiously. It felt almost like ages - the dilation of time prolonged those few second - until Hiccup finally turned back.

Why didn’t Aster move earlier than he? Was it just a coincidence? Probably. Hiccup couldn’t think about any other proper answer to that. Maybe he was looking too much into it anyway?

“Ah, by the way, I saw Heather searching for you like… ten minutes ago?” Ruffnut said, moving to Astrid. They both hugged when she finished speaking.

Hiccup felt Jack tense. He sensed it through the sudden tighter grip of Jack’s hand on Hiccup’s own, he saw it in his sudden shudder and the falter of his everlasting grin. Yet, as soon as all those symptoms appeared, they were gone.

“Okay, where is she now?” He asked, calmly, but something told the auburn haired boy that he was far away from it.

“I think… in the kitchen?” Ruffnut shrugged.

He nodded and then tugged Hiccup in the direction of the kitchen. They had too move, dance, swirl around small groups of people to get to their destination point. Some of the people turned their heads at them, mostly at Jack, welcoming him, waving their hands or asking to drink something with them. And every time it happened Jack was saying that he would return later, because he had something to do. Once or twice they glanced at Hiccup, some of them were surprised and some of them didn’t care. Few of them even smirked when they spotted their intertwined hands. Greaaaat…

The kitchen was weirdly less crowded than the hall and living room. Some girls were mixing some drinks in the corner, laughing about something while chattering wildly. Not too far away from them was the girl with black hair talking with some taller boy.

Hiccup only knew how Heather looks and that she was Dagur’s sister. They never talked, maybe only exchanged glances few times in the corridor, so he wasn’t sure what to think about this situation. Should he smile? Should he show that he knew Dagur? Should he anything at all?

“Let’s get this over with…” Jack whispered to his ear.

Hiccup couldn’t agree more.

“Hey Heather!”

The said girl jumped and turned around. Her eyes widened, mouth moved, forming a surprisingly warm and happy smile. Her emerald eyes glazed to Jack, then glided down at their intertwined hands and… huh boy, Hiccup almost shivered when they landed on him. The corners of her mouth twitched.

“Hey Jack!”  She said cheerfully. “I’m glad you’re here!”

Heather moved and threw her hands all over the white haired boy in a hug. Hiccup could see that Jack tried to return the movement, so he loosened his grip on his hand. Yet when their hands almost got disconnected, Jack’s palm clenched tighter around Hiccup’s palm.

Jack glanced at him. Don’t let go, was what his eyes was sending him. Hiccup felt as his stomach lurched.

She moved away, her eyes were sparkling when she looked at Jack. Hiccup started to wonder if his eyes were shining as much as hers when he was staring at Aster. It was almost like a page, written all over with formulas and calculation, but Hiccup could see it, read it whole. It was clear as the day. She really felt something deep for Jack. Poor girl.

“Hey Heather.” Jack mumbled. His free hand moved to his hair. ”It’s good to see you too.” He then nudged Hiccup’s arm with his own shoulder. “And now it’s time for introductions! Heather this is Hiccup – my boyfriend.” Hiccup reached his hand to her. “Hiccup, this is Heather – my friend.”

Heather caught his palm. They both shook their hands, but it was definitely awkward and odd. Hiccup felt some tension in the girl’s palm. The grin on her face was strained, yet it showed some kind of small happiness.

Weird. Hiccup couldn’t understand it.

“It’s nice to finally meet you.” Heather said when their hands disconnected. “Well actually I heard a lot of you from Dagur.”

Hiccup tried really hard to not suddenly show how his arms tensed. But they did. He could almost hear the creaking sound his spine made when it straightened suddenly. It was like a sudden thunder ran through his body.

“Oh, really?” He found himself speaking without even thinking about it. Only after he spoke, the words got registered by his brain.

She nodded. Her eyes were so warm and bright that it got Hiccup thinking that maybe… maybe she didn’t know what was really happening between them. She probably had never seen how Dagur approached him, never had heard how Dagur was speaking in Hiccup’s presence, never had seen where Dagur was touching him. She only knew Hiccup from her brother stories.

Then the problem was… what Dagur was actually telling Heather?

“Yeah, you seemed like a nice guy, so I’m glad to be able to finally meet you properly.”

What? Hiccup hoped that his face looked normal, not totally confused or frozen with his mouth partly opened. But heck, he was dumbfounded. What was happening around him? What? What exactly was Dagur telling about him?

Jack nudged his arm, helping Hiccup regain his consciousness.

“O-okay…”

Heather tried to clasp her hands, but she giggled when she hit a can instead of her other hand.

“Oh, by the way he should be here today. He just has to finish his work!”

Oh no. No, no, no, no! Everything but that!

Yet, Hiccup’s mouth twitched in a small imitation of smile. He didn’t want to make a grimace in front of Heather. Maybe he hated Dagur, but Heather didn’t need to know that. She looked so happy while speaking about him. They were siblings and she probably loved him. Hiccup didn’t want to make her feel bad.

“Okay, we need to say hey to the rest of the guys. I guess I see you around.” Jack suddenly spoke, unnaturally quickly, like he just waited to cut into their small conversation.

Heather nodded.

“Sure do.” She turned around and returned to talking with her companion.

Jack pulled Hiccup out of the kitchen and back inside the hall. Aster and Tooth were talking with their football teammates. Astrid was nowhere in sight, but Hiccup guessed that she moved somewhere with the twins. Hiccup wasn’t in the mood for introducing himself now, so he untangled his hand.

“I’m going to find Astrid.” He explained, when Jack sent him a surprised look.

“Okay. I’ll be around. Find me if you need something or you know… when…”

Hiccup nodded, immediately understanding what Jack meant. Something in his chest vibrated, clenched and compressed hearing it, yet he felt a slight prickle of happiness flowing in his stomach.

“Sure.” He said, as he turned and walked into the living room.

Finding Astrid wasn’t so hard, he only had to follow loud voices of Ruffnut and Tuffnut. They were sitting in the corner on some sofas. Snotlout was also with them with cup in one hand. They were all laughing about something.

Astrid spotted him first as she waved her hand, inviting to come closer.

“Where is Jack?” She asked, when he was in their range of hearing.

“Somewhere with his friends.”

After hearing Hiccup’s voice, the twins and Snotlout turned to him. Tuffnut and Ruffnut had weirdly happy and red faces and Snotlout… well, he looked surprised.

“Oh hey Hiccup. I have two questions for you.” He said, his nose scrunched a little as he stepped closer.

“I’m all ears.”

“For first – Are you seriously going out with Frost?”

Hiccup felt bad for lying to them. They definitely weren’t like Astrid – the person with whom he could talk literally about everything, but they were still his friends. One day he will explain it all to them… but this day wasn’t today.

So with heavy heart he answered:

“Yeah. And the second question is…” Hiccup already feared it.

Snotlout threw his hands in the air, almost knocking out some girl that passed them and spilling half of his beer on the floor. Ugh.

“How did you do that?!” And his voice rolled around the room. Gladly the music was so loud that it drowned the sound wave.

Well how did he do that? That was a good question! He actually didn’t do anything. Like literally, he was only standing in the bathroom and then Jack popped out of nowhere and claimed to be his boyfriend to save him. When he thought about it like that… it really sounded weird. But it was the truth… Seriously, he felt like he was a protagonist in some weird novel.

“I don’t know.” He mumbled. “It just happened…” No details. That was okay, he didn’t want to make up stories to remember.

Snotlout was opening his mouth to add another question - probably more narrow than the previous one, but definitely holding as much wonderment - when he was stopped by the twins pushing forward and putting something in Hiccup’s hand.

“Hiccup, you have to drink with us!” Ruffnut whined next to him. “Come on, dude!”

Hiccup glanced at the cup in his hand. It looked like a beer, but knowing twins it was something far away from it. He didn’t even like alcohol that much. He had drink it few times in his life, because seriously, who didn’t? And okay, sometimes he could say that champagne or wine was good or fine or whatever people called alcohol, but he was never up for stronger drinks. Yet Ruffnut and Tuffnut loved them. And because of that Hiccup doubted that he had only beer here. Not to mention, memories from previous parties haunted him. Nu-huh.

“Like seriously, you need it if you want to live through this party…” This statement was spoken more quietly, almost like a whisper only to be heard by their circle.

And he understood why Ruffnut said it quietly when after few seconds Dagur waltzed into the room with some friends, laughing about something.

Hiccup tried to shrink few inches or even a meter and hide somewhere. Somewhere far away. Somewhere, where he could be left alone.

Maybe it was his imagination, some kind of figment of his mind, but he had a feeling that Ruffnut moved a little bit closer which resulted in blocking his line of sight. Or maybe it was supposed to block every line of sight directed at Hiccup? Never mind the real reason, he was still thankful for it.

* * *

Hiccup was tired. He really was and it wasn’t even midnight. Muscles in his body were screaming from standing and walking around for too long, not even being able to really relax for brief second.

He wasn’t a party person. He already knew that. So why his friends even dragged him here was still a mystery. Once he tried to run away and hide in the bathroom on the first floor - his sanctuary - but when he thought he was close enough, he was captured by Jack and introduced to everyone from his football team. Well it was one of the most awkward moments of his life. Hiccup just stood there and shook everyone hands, trying to look as pleased as he could be. But he wasn’t. His body was as rigid as a steel bar.

Hiccup more over knew who was in the football team. Yet he was met with a nice surprise. They actually welcomed him with a warm smiles and a lot of laughs. Well they were already pretty drunk, but it was still a pleasant change. Hiccup spent with them almost half an hour with Jack standing near him (maybe it was because of the crowd that looked like it was getting bigger and bigger).

It looked like Jack was enjoying himself, so Hiccup was glad about that. He needed some stress relief after the last week.

When the auburn haired boy spotted Heather and Dagur walking into the corridor, he quickly excused himself to the kitchen. Jack looked like he wanted to say something, but his hand only brushed his arm and then Hiccup was gone.

There he met Tooth talking with some girls from the school. To be honest, he hoped to slip pass them without them noticing him and finally find some quiet corner, but Tooth unfortunately called him. Then she introduced him and Hiccup had to shake another hands (gladly girls weren’t clenching his palm as tight as the football team members did). He found out that they were from the same club Tooth was in - Biology club. Hiccup wasn’t so much into Biology, but he still enjoyed talking with them. But even he had to agree that they must have looked ridiculous talking about the Krebs cycle* in the middle of the party.

After that he bumped back into twins and Snotlout that tried to get him to play the Drinking Jenga with them. Hiccup had seen what this game had done to some people, so he refused them as kindly as he could.

And with that he made a full circle and returned to the living room where he met up with Astrid. They talked for brief moment, but she had to excuse herself to go to the toilet.

Hiccup was finally alone. And oddly… he felt a little bit lonely. He wasn’t very fond of Tuffnut and Ruffnut’s parties, yet today party wasn’t all that bad. Of course he was totally exhausted, his ears hurt, his bones creaked under the weight of his body, but as surprisingly as it was, this wasn’t so bad. It didn’t mean that he didn’t want to go back home. Oh, he did, he wanted to hide under covers, skype with Fishleg or just read something, but he wasn’t checking the watch every five seconds, so that was a giant plus.

Hiccup looked at the cup in his hand with some alcohol inside. Astrid gave it to him when she walked to the toilet.

He took a deep breath, allowing his arms to relax. He looked around. Some people were dancing to the rumbling sound of music, some were chattering wildly, laughing and clinking each other cups and the rest was playing with the twins. From the sounds of it, it looked like someone just had to take a shot. Poor boy or girl…

Where was Astrid…? She left like… ten minutes ago already.

“Hey Hiccup, enjoying yourself?”

He didn’t know how or when Dagur managed to slip inside the room without him noticing him. Not to mention he literally appeared from nowhere just right next to him.

Uh oh and the tension in his muscles came back, but now the force was five times bigger. It felt like he was suddenly electrocuted with the electricity overpowering his nerves.

Hiccup turned his head.

Dagur was standing next to him, leaning on the wall with can of beer in one hand. He was looking at him, his dark, emerald eyes glinted in the colorful lights blinking from the reflectors. Hiccup didn’t like how he towered above him. He cursed his height.

Maybe he could save himself from this somehow. Let’s approach it as calmly as he could.

“H-hey… Dagur.” He slowly said. “I’m quite enjoying myself.” Or at least until you came here, but Hiccup decided not to add that. “How about you?” Ugh, he hoped his voice didn’t sound so weak.

The taller boy lifted his can and twirled it in his palm, like he wanted to read the ingredients.

“Well...” He finally said, surprisingly not looking at Hiccup, but somewhere at the dance floor where two girls were swirling around. “I’ve been on better parties, but this one isn’t so bad.” He glanced back at Hiccup. “Even better that I managed to talk with you.”

Uh oh, where was Astrid when he needed her? Or Jack, twins, even Snotlout?

Hiccup stared down at his cup. The smell of alcohol itched his nose and his throat clenched. He lifted it to his mouth and took a small sip to buy himself some time or just to do something. He almost gagged. What was she drinking? Ugh… it was too strong and just tasted… weird? And how was Astrid even able to drink already two cups of this?

“Not much for a drinker, aren’t you?” It was more a statement, than a question.

Hiccup nevertheless nodded slowly while moving the cup away from his mouth.

“Nor really…”

And then Dagur chuckled. He really did. It wasn’t the evil snort, it wasn’t the dangerous laughter, it wasn’t the terrifying chuckle, but normal amused one. It was the first time Hiccup heard him like that – so… natural.

Hiccup was taken a little bit aback.

“Is Frost here with you?”

The quick and sudden question took him by a surprise. He didn’t expect hearing it from Dagur of all people.

“Yes… yes, he is.” Hiccup answered, trying not to stutter or mumble, in case Dagur would want to lean and hear him more correctly.

“Shame.” The taller teenager scoffed and took a sip of his beer, eyes darting from one corner to the other. “So, why isn’t he with you?”

This was going nowhere good. Seriously where Dagur was, there were problems. And why was he asking so many questions?

Hiccup evaluated all the options he came up in his head.

“Because he is talking with his other friends…” No, that wasn’t enough. ”I don’t want him to always be by my side. We all have our own lives too.” A little bit better. Not to mention a little bit of it was true. He would never want for his boyfriend to by tied, glued to him so strictly, being unable to talk freely or hang out with his other friends.

“Maybe Frost would not want to be by your side all the time.” Dagur whispered softly, unnaturally warm as he moved an inch closer. Their tights were almost now glued to each other. It took Hiccup a lot of power to not scatter around. “But I definitely would want to.”

Hiccup could smell the stink of alcohol coming out from Dagur’s mouth. It itched his nose, making him want to gag. What he had done in his previous life to suffer like that now?

The music on the dance floor ended. The person near the laptop, who was uncalled DJ, started to look through the list of songs for this party. Then with a smirk, he clicked some title. The quick, unsteady rhythm flowed from the speakers, drumming loudly. For second it felt like the whole house was vibrating, shaking under the loud sound.

Hiccup couldn’t understand how this house was even standing now while being under such heavy force, but it looked like people didn’t care about that. Many of them yelled in approbate. The dance floor, that until now was quite empty, filled with party people, swinging their hips to the music. Some girls shrieked, as they literally jumped in the middle of some group, spilling alcohol from their cups all over the floor. No one really cared.

The sudden commotion although helped Hiccup avoid the sudden uncomfortable atmosphere which appeared between them. Maybe the word ‘avoid’ was misused. ‘Postpone’ was a better one.

Where was Astrid? Did something happened to her? Hiccup needed to check on her…

“I need to go.” Hiccup finally said, when the crowd on the dance floor started to get so big, that people were slowly invading his personal space. And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if Dagur wouldn’t move to make place for some pair next to them. Ugh, they were too close now.

“Why?” Dagur asked.

Some girl pushed past him, giggling under her nose with his friend. The red haired teenager moved from the wall and stood in front of Hiccup.

“I really need to go.” Hiccup said one more time, trying to sound as steady and convincingly as he could. Couldn’t this guy take a hint or what?

Plus, he was now really worried about Astrid. Hiccup hoped that nothing had happened to her.

“Already? But we didn’t even dance yet?” Dagur smirked and put his hand on the wall near the smaller boy’s head. Hiccup didn’t know if this was purposeful movement or someone pushed him from behind, but it made him cringe inside. Hiccup needed to calm himself. There were tons of people around. Dagur won’t do anything.

Deep breaths - one, two, three…

“I… don’t really dance…” Hiccup murmured under his nose, hiding his mouth behind the cup. He had an urge to take another sip, but he knew that he shouldn’t drink. It ended badly last time - for him and for some people around.

“Oh really?” Dagur’s voice was low, almost quiet, and even though the music was blasting around Hiccup heard him just fine.

The cup in his hand now suddenly felt like a rock that was making him sink, so in the end he drank the content of it. The warm feeling overpowered his throat. They did said that alcohol made you braver. And he… he need bravery right now.

“Doesn’t really matter to me to be honest.”

Hiccup’s throat suddenly become dry by just imagining him and Dagur dancing together. No, no, that was out of the question.  Nu huh. He preferred to learn every mechanism from organic chemistry than dance with Dagur. He knew it was terrible way of thinking, but how was he supposed to think otherwise when Dagur acted like that?

Hiccup wasn’t responding for some time, simply because he didn’t know what to say. What words should he use to make him go away?

Then Dagur’s hand, that until now was on the wall, moved down and rested on his waist. He almost encircled Hiccup in a hug. It was suddenly so hot, so dizzy, like someone sucked all oxygen from his personal circle.

“It’s just one dance…” Dagur murmured, standing next to him and ungluing Hiccup from the wall.

He tried to not move his legs. He really did. And because of that, Hiccup almost crashed in some boys dancing at the outside circle. But it looked like they didn’t even care about that as they didn’t turn their heads at them.

Hiccup really tried to pin his heels into the ground, to brake somehow, but the taller boy was stronger than him. Now he was literally dragging the smaller teen into the middle of the dance floor.

The people around him were pushing at him, were touching him accidentally, were not paying attention into whom they crashed. It was a blessing and a curse right now. Hiccup tried to wiggle to his freedom, to somehow move away, but there was literally no space.

The cup in his hand fell down, getting immediately lost under dancing feet. There was buzzing sound in his ears. What did the twins make for Astrid? He was so glad he only drank like… half a cup.

They both somehow found a little space in the middle.

Hiccup gulped down the sour saliva.

* * *

Jack took a sip from his cup as he moved to the living room in search for his friends. His cunning eyes wandered from one corner to the other, but the crowd was big, making it unable to recognize every person face. Gladly, he had no problems with pinpointing the hosts of the party. They were literally the loudest in this room. And they were playing… Drinking Jenga? Jack played it once and decided to never do it again. Maybe because he lost miserably and the morning after wasn’t too good for him… or his organs.

“Hey guys!” He yelled as he approached them.

Some of the players waved at him, some were chanting something to Tuffnut who was now taking a drink of something… green. Jack didn’t want to know.

Ruffnut, that literally sat in front of Jack, tilted her head back and grinned. She was drunk, but she held strongly. The twins’ tolerance of alcohol was terrifying.

“What’s up, Frost? Wanna play?” She screamed, trying to be heard over the booming music.

And wow, wow Jack’s ears suddenly buzzed. Ugh.

“No, thanks. Did you see Aster or Hiccup?”

But it looked like his voice was too quiet (even though he almost shouted it), because the girl’s eyes only widened.

“What?!”

“I’m asking if you have seen Bunny or Hiccup!?”

She opened her mouth, but after a second she shook her head.

“I didn’t see Aster anywhere!” She shouted above the cheering crowd. Jack was almost sure her voice bounced of the wall, but it looked like no one beside him heard her. “But Hiccup was with Astrid near the dance floor few seconds ago!”

Jack cringed when other players shouted something, then started clapping when someone took one block and put it on the top without destroying the whole construction.

“Thanks!”

With this new information Jack moved away from them, not wanting to get dragged into playing anyway. He directed his steps to the ‘dance floor’ - or the empty center of the living room with reflectors hung around. From where Ruffnut and Tuffnut had this kind of devices was still an unsolved mystery to him.

He maneuvered around people, some of them were welcoming him, some of them didn’t even glance at him. His eyes scanned the crowd, like a predator searching for a prey. He didn’t drink too much, only maybe a beer or two, so he had no problems in seeing correctly, but the swarming wave of people going in and out was making it hard to find the small mop of auburn hair or a little bit taller blonde.

It looked like the DJ just played some very liked song, because suddenly people were jumping around, trying to get onto the dance floor.

Jack liked to dance. He could even say he was good at it. And maybe if he could hear what was on the list, he would jump into the crowd too. But now he wanted to take a small break, find some friends and loosen up for half an hour or so. Meeting with so many people were amazing, but every star need a break from shining too much.

His eyes stopped, when he saw some movements not really too far away from him. In the small gap between moving people he saw Hiccup’s face. Jack raised his hand above the crown. He was just about to call his fake-boyfriend, when another face appeared in his line of vision.

Dagur – he was also with Hiccup. It even looked more like he was taking Hiccup somewhere. And only when Jack squinted his eyes, he was able to see some small sparks of terror in the boy’s viridian eyes.

Jack quickly dove down into the ocean of people, slowly swimming to the moving pair.

Jack had seen and knew what Dagur was able to do. Not to mention he heard some rumors, some were darker and heavier than the bottom of the ocean. He didn’t know if any of them were true, but he didn’t want to find out right now… or like ever.

His heart hammered in his chest. His lungs felt like they were constricted for few seconds, unable to take a proper breath. Jack wasn’t sure if this was because of the throng or the sudden rush of fear that hit his nerves in a giant wave.

For brief second he lost track of them.

Jack cared too much sometimes - many people have told him so. He also was told that he had a soft spot for his family and best-friends. And you know what? Jack was totally fine with that! Worrying over someone wasn’t bad. Yet Hiccup wasn’t his best-friend. Jack wasn’t even sure if Hiccup called Jack a friend. But Jack did. In his mind he slowly started to call Hiccup his friend. And friends need to help each other.

It felt like light years, before he once again saw the pair, standing weirdly almost in the center of the dance party. He was now meter and a half… no, two meters away from them.

“Hiccup!” He shouted, waving his hand in the air.

But the said boy had his back on him. Add the overbearing music around them and it was almost impossible to hear Jack. He ducked one more time into the crowd, moving around, bending in weird positions, apologizing, pushing around, until he was only half a meter away.

Hiccup was standing, straight as a string. He wasn’t even twitching, it felt like he turned suddenly into a cold stone. Was it his defense reflex? Just like a wild, but scared animal. Just freeze and hope that the predator won’t see you. But it only works if you can blend into the background. Or if the predator isn’t interested in you specifically…

Jack could already see Dagur’s face, pleased, kind of excited (Happy? Weird, but his eyes really glinted with something pure). His both hands were on the smaller boy’s waist.

Jack had to try it again.

“Hiccup!” Now his voice was louder, higher. It took the attention of some people around, but they brushed it off quickly.

But Jack sighed in content when he got the attention of the two people literally in front of him. Hiccup turned to him, slowly, unsure, but when he spotted Jack, his green eyes sparkled with some hidden, dark relief. Dagur on the other side… not so much. His eyes squinted, mouth scowled and his arms tensed, probably tightening his grip (judging by the sudden twitch of Hiccup’s eye).

“H-hey Jack…” The smaller teen voice wavered, teeth bit into the bottom lip.

Jack tried to smile reassuringly, even though he was literally a mess inside with a storm running through his veins.

“I was looking all over for you!” Jack stood now next to them, very close to Hiccup. Even if he wanted to move away, there was no place to do so because of the dancing people around.

He did look for him, so that was the truth. Maybe not all over, but still.

“Can’t you see we’re in the middle of a dance, Frost?” Dagur suddenly scoffed, directing his angry, cold eyes at Jack.

Even thought Dagur was almost half a head taller than Jack, he didn’t feel scared with so many people around. Not to mention this two beers gave him a little bit of bravery.

“No, I can’t see that. It looks for me more like a forced waddle.” He hoped his words won’t be the reason of some hard shoves later. “You’re making my boyfriend uncomfortable, Dagur. Would you mind letting him go?” Wow, that was some smart words he just spoke. He was impressed with himself, that is if he won’t die in the next few seconds.

The taller teen didn’t say anything. Hiccup only stared back and forth between both of them and people danced around, not even caring a bit.

The music suddenly ended with a loud sigh of sadness coming from the people. Yet the sudden drop of enthusiasm was quickly back with some new song, getting even more cheers from the crowd than the previous one.

Jack knew this song. Typical club music, made for people to jump around. Some light bulb blinked in his brain.

Jack stepped closer and put his own palm on Hiccup’s waist, pushing away Dagur’s one. He maybe crossed a little bit the boundaries they put between them when he moved forward, almost gluing his side to Hiccup, but it had to be done.

“Let’s dance. I know you love this song.”

The smaller boy moved like a robot and Jack couldn’t blame him. They walked few steps away, with Jack’s eyes still pinned on Dagur, until they found a small patch of place for them. Only then Jack finally turned to Hiccup.

He was staring at him with weird awe, pinched with small relieved smile on his lips. His arms were still tensed, but step after step, they started to fell down. His hands twitched, then slowly he put his palms on Jack’s arm. They were cold and sweaty, but Jack didn’t feel disgusted. How could he when Hiccup was probably just freaked out.

“We better dance.” He whispered, when Jack sent him a surprised, but welcomed glance.

Jack put his other hand on his waist, maybe even a little bit higher for Hiccup to feel more comfortable. Hiccup lifted the corner of his lips in thanking manner.

They moved slowly, awkwardly in a circle. Somewhere in the middle Hiccup put some space between them, but not for long, as Jack’s teammate accidentally bumped into the smaller teen, sending Hiccup crashing into Jack’s chest. The white haired teen only chuckled at this, which was accompanied by Hiccup’s small glare.

The people around them were literally jumping, waving their hands, swishing around, hugging, brushing with each other, swirling, circling. The crowd was alive, it was bursting with energy. The loud, fast, unsteady rhythm was ringing in Jack’s ear, it was making his heart speed up, it was making his blood boil.

Yet, he didn’t mind the slow pace they had, but judging by the consistence in Hiccup’s stomach and back muscles it looked like the boy was somehow… constricted. Few times, when they were too close, Hiccup would lift his hand and poke him in the cheek, at first very hesitantly, lightly, but then they turned into normal jabbing. For everyone around them it would look like some small bickering or tease. But Jack knew the signal and every time he tried to move back or put his hands higher, so they weren’t laying on boy’s waist. But he had to say that Hiccup was taking it nevertheless quite good. However, he felt that it wasn’t the closure that was making Hiccup… edgy.

Jack leaned a little.

“You can relax if you want.” He said, loud enough for the auburn haired boy to hear, but quiet so no one around them would hear them. Jack quickly scoped the surroundings, but Dagur them. Or he got lost in the crowd.

“I better not to…” Hiccup responded, not lifting his head. If he would move a step closer, he would bump his head on Jack’s chest.

“Dagur is not here.”

The music ended. The crowd followed it with a loud groan, many of the people stopped moving. Hiccup and Jack started to slow down.

“It’s not about him…” Hiccup mumbled when they stopped, but not moved away.

Jack started to look around. Some people walked away, bored of waiting for another song to be played. The rest began to chatter between each other, waiting patiently, brushing away the sweat from their foreheads or checking if they had any bruises.

The white haired teen looked down and asked:

“Then what is this about?”

“I rather… not talk about it… like right now… or ever.”

Jack had totally no idea what was budging Hiccup so much, but judging by the sudden blush that spread over the smaller teen freckled cheeks it was definitely something embarrassing. It got him a little curious, but Jack knew better not to nudge it. Not to mention Hiccup looked totally bothered by it and Jack didn’t like that scowl and uncertainty look on his face. This was a party, they should have fun! Not think about whatever mistakes they had made in the past. So Jack leaned a little closer and spoke, quiet enough, so only Hiccup heard him:

“Hey, whatever it was, it was in the past. Don’t let it prevent you from enjoying yourself. It doesn’t have to happen again.” No, that wasn’t enough. There needed to be something more. “Just trust me and relax.” Jack smiled reassuringly at the boy in front of him.

Hiccup stared at him. His green eyes looked right into his own, searching for something. Then, after some time, maybe a second or two, he nodded while puffing his cheeks and exhaled the air slowly through his nose.

“You’re right…” He muttered.

“You bet I am.”

Hiccup only chuckled at that.

The DJ called something above the crowd and the speakers came to live once again. This time also with some rush and fast tunes.

And when Jack expected Hiccup to move still in that monotone, slow, delicate way, Hiccup surprised him with a strong, yet a little bit hesitant swirl. Jack was so taken aback by that, that he almost lost his footing and crashed into the pair behind him. Fortunately Hiccup tugged on his shirt, saving him from the disgrace that would fall on his head. In the end Jack almost knocked his fake-boyfriend out with his chin.

Gladly the hit wasn’t that bad, so Hiccup only yelped, but grinned. His one hand moved to his forehead to massage the bruise.

“Too much relaxation?” He yelled with weird, faint reflections in his eyes. Was it the lightning around them or maybe some drink he had?

“No, just perfect!” Jack shouted back, loosening a little his grip on boy’s waist-or-almost-chest.

He took Hiccup’s hand and spinned him few times. In the meantime, he almost stumbled on some girl next to him and bumped in some circle on the other side. But the laugh that followed after from the smaller teen’s lips got Jack thinking that he didn’t mind it.

If someone would tell Jack maybe a month ago that he would be dancing on the twins’ party with the biggest nerd of the school, he would laugh heartily at the poor person. But here they were, Jackson Overland – the star of the school, who didn’t deserve the title, and Hamish Haddock – the most intelligent person probably in the whole school, dancing together. Just two people who knew each other, swishing, jumping, bouncing like two small specks in the air.

They moved, bumped into each other, circled, stomped, jumped to the loud rhythm between them. It was energetic, alive, and full of power. The blood pumping in Jack’s head, the sudden chuckle that came out of his mouth, the small smile from the teen next to him – it was all amazing. For those small moments Jack would do everything. He felt so alive, so… so important. Like a link in the chain, maybe a small one, but without it everything would crumble down. He was a part of something, even if this something was a dance floor.

Jack made a step forward, when the girl with whom he talked earlier bumped into him accidentally, just in time when Hiccup was making a spin. Which resulted in Jack hitting Hiccup’s back.

He noticed that the crowd was getting tighter and tighter. His head was a mess. It was buzzing like it was working on top speed. And maybe it kind of did. There wasn’t enough air around, so he was taking every gasp with relief and then starting to move once again.

He never wanted to stop.

They had to be close to each other due to people around them. It felt like everyone wanted to feel even a little bit of this happiness, to just taste the joy that danced, flowed between people. Everyone was almost glued to each other, but no one was mad. Many of people cheered and laughed. Must be all the alcohol.

That got him thinking if Hiccup also had drank something, because now he was simply dancing with his eyes closed and with small smile curled in the corner of his lips, not really paying attention to the sudden hotness and tightness around them. His body bended, curled, twirled, rolled, brushing often with Jack’s body.

Who could have thought that Hiccup wasn’t such a scaredy cat on the dance floor?

Jack laughed when Hiccup almost hit him with his elbow. The sound although made Hiccup finally open his eyes - his irises now glinted with tiny sparks, like a dew in the morning. The white haired teen liked that view.

Jack didn’t remember when was the last time he felt so free. All those problems with Heather, school, him, was making him feel devastated, like his personality was crumbling down. It was amazing how one dance with someone he barely knew was renovating him like an old painting. Jack wanted to share the joy, bliss, felicity that spilled all over his body. So when Hiccup brushed his hand accidentally near Jack’s chest he caught it. After Hiccup sent him a surprised glance, Jack started to swirl him around once again.

He wanted to share this happiness with someone and who was better than the small teen that helped him so much in this few days?

Yet the sudden stop of Hiccup’s body made Jack think that he made some mistake. He really confirmed his suspicions, when the auburn haired teen suddenly covered his mouth with his palm and literally blasted through the crowd, disappearing from Jack’s view and leaving him alone.

What?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it has been so long till the last chapter, but seriously, it took me pretty darn long to check this one (due to my exams and all this mumbo jumbo). But I hope you enjoyed it. I like the party part so much, I don’t even know why =D. I caught up with my written chapter (I didn’t finish the fourth one… I mean I did, but I didn’t like the ending so I deleted it xD), so you need to wait a little bit longer for the next one.
> 
> And answers:  
> blitz_lili - Yeah, they are <3\. I really love writing scenes with them. I think the most uncomfortable scenes for me are the ones with Dagur xD. And I love twins, 'cause they are a riot <3\. Aww thank you, hope you liked this one <3!  
> Keyl - You don't have to apologize as english isn't my native language too, so don't worry :3 (You did great by the way :3). And ohmygosh you got me grinning! I totally understand you, when fanficks are incomplete I'm always scared that the writer won't end them D: I'm not sure if this fic is the best fic, but I'm so glad that you like it!! Hope you enjoyed this chapter too <3.
> 
> And now some nerd’s fact:  
> * Exothermic chemical reaction - is a chemical reaction that releases energy by light or heat.  
> * Be drenched in carbon tetrachloride – it had happened to me three times during one laboratory and let me tell you, this isn’t a nice feeling. This substance is very cold and leave an unpleasant feeling, like some kind of goop running down your spine (or arm in my case).  
> * The brown ring test (Nitrate test) - can be performed by adding iron(II) sulfate to a solution of a nitrate, then slowly adding concentrated sulfuric acid such that the acid forms a layer below the aqueous solution. A brown ring will form at the junction of the two layers, indicating the presence of the nitrate ion. We also had to do it during one of our laboratory. I didn’t manage to do it (my friends also didn’t do it), but our teacher was showing it to me and saying ‘Can you see it?’ and I was like ‘Yeah, yeah, sure’, but really… I couldn’t see it.  
> * The Krebs cycle (The citric acid cycle) – is a part of cellular respiration. It is a series of chemical reactions used by all aerobic organisms to generate energy. I’m not really so much into Biology, but I remember that when I saw it for the first time I was like ‘What?’.
> 
> Some small comments from me:  
> *Dagur’s behavior on the party – I hope that you have seen that he wasn’t acting so badly on the party. Actually this moment I wrote two times. In the first one Dagur acted unnaturally sweet and it got Hiccup suspicious, but it didn’t add to the end of this chapter, so I changed it. Dagur act a lot as a child, not as a teen. It will be explained later.  
> *Aged of characters – Okay, so I need to clear few things. So all characters were/are in 4-year High School. Hiccup and Astrid are in 11 Grade. Jack, Tooth, Aster and Heather are in 12 Grade. Snotlout, Tuffnut and Ruffnut already finished High School. They all are part-time students (I don’t know if this is a correct name. The translator told me this is called extramural or part-time studies, but basically it is a college where you attend lectures in the evening during week days) and currently working in some fast-food restaurant to earn money for their full-time studies. Then there is Dagur who is also in 12 Grade, but he actually should have ended High School two years ago, but had to repeat two years/grades. Why he had to do it will be explained later.  
> *Chapter’s title – So this is a very funny story for me xD. Before I decided to name chapters after laws this one was called ‘Partying hard’. Why? Well, half of it will be explained in the next chapter (I wonder if you could guess why xD).  
> *Time of the story – Jack and Hiccup had met near the half of the November, so we’re slowly moving to the December (they known each other for almost two weeks now). I know I didn’t include Thanksgiving, but I’m not familiar with this holiday.  
> *Hiccup’s behavior – I need to clear few things. Nothing bad happened to Hiccup or anything like that. He just doesn’t like people touching him. He is similar to me in that way. I mean, small hug as greeting are okay, but I’m totally uncomfortable with hugging or touching someone too much or too long. I just don’t like it, so yeah, no deep, hidden secrets or anything like that.
> 
> Hope to see you again soon!


	4. Stark-Einstein law

**Stark-Einstein law** \- Every photon that is absorbed will cause a (primary) chemical or physical reaction.

 

Well, that went well… Awfully well…

Hiccup rushed past people standing in the corridor. Some of them glanced at him, but quickly turned their heads, because the image of some boy running to the toilet with palm clasped on his mouth was pretty normal on the infamous twins’ parties. And this was exactly what Hiccup was doing.

He quickly climbed up the stairs, directing his fast steps to the familiar bathroom at the end of the corridor, the one without the lock, the one that not many people visited, the one secluded, his favourite spot to sit alone…

Until he saw a familiar lump of blonde hair sitting above the toilet, with her head hid inside the bowl. In one second, or maybe even less, his body totally forgot that it was about to throw up.

“Astrid?” He asked hoarsely.

It looked like she was dead to the world, as she wasn’t responding for some time. Then she groaned heavily with her shoulders slumping down.

“Please kill me…” She burped and - uh oh – Hiccup had to look up. He knew that she was vomiting by the sound of it and definitely by the smell. Odin, it was even worse than a smell of ammonia.

Suddenly Hiccup felt this feeling one more time (the one he had when he was dancing not even few minutes ago with Jack) - that he really needed to find toilet now. But he compressed it, pushed down inside his stomach with his will and looked back at the girl. Now wasn’t the good time to puke.

Yep, Astrid was down from the party. And - Hiccup quickly glanced at his wristwatch - it wasn’t even midnight. They had a new record!

He pecked outside the door. Noticing that no one wanted to interrupt their not-so-peaceful moment with contents of Astrid’s stomach, Hiccup closed the door and moved to his friend.

“Are you done flushing out your hydrochloric acid?” He asked, trying to sound comforting and kind. He never had seen Astrid like that (maybe once, but it was because she was ill), so he didn’t quite know how to act. Pat on the back? Definitely no. Tell a joke? Hiccup was bad at that.

The girl lifted her head, turned it and glared at him. Her face was as white as magnesium hydroxide*, not counting her cheeks which were furiously red. Hiccup wasn’t sure if this was because of embarrassment or the sudden blood rush due to hanging her head for too long.

“Shut up…” She growled. If looks could burn, he would be dead now.

“Okay, your bad side is back!” Hiccup kneeled next to her. “But seriously you look like…”

“Shit?” Astrid retorted, trying to sound cheerful, but it came out like a whine.

“I wanted to say like a dead person, but yeah… more over…” Hiccup sat there, not really knowing what to do, but not wanting to leave her friend to fend for herself. Especially now.

For few moments they sat there not doing particularly anything. Well, Hiccup was trying to come up with an idea of what to do. How he should care for people who were puking? He had never done that! Should he bring her water? But he didn’t want to leave her. Maybe he should cover her somehow? It looked like she was freezing. Call the ambulance? No, it was probably too much.

In the meantime Astrid looked like she had a very hard decision of _‘to throw up, or not to throw up’_. And when the second option almost won, the first side suddenly attacked with brute force, making Astrid lean above to bowl and empty the stomach once again.

Hiccup yelped when he saw her blonde hair falling into the water.

“Oh no, no, no, no!” He knew how she loved them, so he jumped to her and caught the locks of faint blonde hair into his palm, lifting it on safe height.

Who knew he would be holding Astrid Hofferson’s hair, while she was throwing up? Life really was bizarre.

* * *

Jack somehow got untangled from the mass of people surrounding him. He took a deep breath, feeling the sweaty, gross, but sweet, sweet air in his lungs. Only now he felt that the dance floor was a cooker and he was so-so away from being baked. And even though the sudden space around him, the greasy air and the low sound were amazing, he wasn’t totally happy. Well who would be when your partner (fake on, but still) would suddenly disappear while covering his mouth?

Jack didn’t feel too offended. He was concerned more.

Was he such a bad dancer? He thought that dancing was something he was good at. Was it the close proximity? But Hiccup looked like he was having fun (of course earlier Hiccup tried to put as much space as he could between then, but after he found out that it was almost impossible due to the mass pressed on them he stopped trying). Maybe Jack smelled? He took a long sniff of his blouse. Sweat, definitely sweat, but the crowd on the dance floor definitely smelled worse. Was it too much spinning? Maybe he crossed some boundary, some invisible line, without him knowing? But Jack was just so cheerful, so happy, was in such a bliss that he wanted to share this feeling, wanted to thank him somehow… But it looked like he even messed that thing up.

Whatever it was, it was probably his fault. Jack couldn’t think about it any other way.

He walked slowly, suddenly feeling all this exhaustion weighing on his muscles, bones and joints. Jack was good at sports, he could say that he was even muscular, yet dancing was something that drained the power from his body in the fastest way possible, not to mention in one of the nicest ways. But now he wasn’t in a bliss, in that happy lethargy…

Some people stared at him. He tried to smile back, because – _hello!?_ \- he was Jackson Overland, one of the most optimistic guys on the Earth. Just… not now.

“Hey Jack!”

He lifted his head to spot a teen with whom he was working last summer vacations at the beach shop. Jack definitely needed to catch up with him, so he walked to him.

Jack wanted to find Hiccup, but it looked like the boy needed some personal space now. And the white haired teen probably needed to give him just that

* * *

Almost an hour, two beers and seven met people later he finally spotted Aster:

“Hey, Frost, I’ve been looking all over for you!”

Aster was making his way very slowly towards him, even though he was towering above most of the people. Seeing familiar face, the really, truly familiar face somehow lifted a little bit up Jack’s drowned mood.

“Could say the same.” Jack said, when the gray haired teen somehow successfully maneuvered to him without bumping in too many people too much.

Jack knew many people that were here by name, he had phone numbers from some of them, he talked regularly in school or on Facebook with quite big part of the party people. But some faces were definitely new, not to mention they looked slightly older than them. Were those people twins’ friends from work or college?

“Where have you been?” Jack asked as they both now moved in the direction of the kitchen, leaving the loud living room behind.

“I’ve been driving some drunk dude home…” Aster’s mouth turned into a scowl when his hand cleaned the crease on his shirt. “He almost threw up on the back seat…” The teen shuddered just remembering it.

Jack smiled. He knew how Aster loved his car, no matter how it was bumped on almost every door, no matter how it was growling when he tried to turn it on, no matter how it was huffing when they were driving for too long - it would be always the precious Bunny’s car. Jack couldn’t blame him, he would be also overprotective of his car (if he would have one). Not to mention Jack got used to it, so he liked to sit in clean seats too.

“Uh, harsh.”

“I know! Ugh, drunk people…”

Jack laughed, knowing very well that if Aster could he would drink something and now was simply jealous, because he couldn’t do that. It’s not like they both were drinking till they were out from this world, but hey, they enjoyed occasional beer or two from time to time.

The kitchen was statistically empty, which in Jack’s opinion meant that there were more empty spaces than occupied ones. It looked like the fever of dancing got to many people who were now in the living room swishing their hips in the fast beat of the music.

Yet they found Tooth, the twins and Snotlout talking in the corner, sipping on something.

“Hey guys, long time no see.” Aster moved to the group as he waved his hand without enthusiasm.

“Man, I didn’t see you for like few hours!” Tuffnut yelled, too loud in the silence that wrapped them. “I thought that you went home already!”

“No, I was driving some dude home. Brinn? Bryan? Whatever his name was... He was drunk as hell, what did you guys give him?”

Ruffnut shrugged, flipping one of her braid on her back.

“I don’t know. People keep bringing their own alcohol. We don’t give our alcohol to everyone, you know… just… special ones.” She grinned and the sudden spark in her eyes was something Jack didn’t like. Or maybe she just had too much. Nevertheless he was kind of amazed by how much she could drink and still be with them.

Jack looked at Tooth that was glancing at them, but her eyes were dazzled, glossy, like she saw them and didn’t in the same time. Her hair was now a mess, the previous pinned up bun was destroyed with rainbow locks falling onto her forehead and back. She was very pale, the usually red cheeks replaced with unhealthy green ones.

“Tooth are you okay?!” Jack asked, moving quickly to her and putting one arm over her shoulder, allowing her to lean on him.

She lifted her head and tried to smile, but it faltered pretty quickly.

“Do I look like I’m okay?” She asked, trying to sound cheerful or maybe even funny, but it looked just… bad.

“No, you look like shit.” Aster added. Delicate as ever.

“Yeah, we saw it too, so we came to her.” Snotlout finally spoke, crossing his arms on his chest. “But Ariel already went to the pharmacy to get something for her.”

Jack doubted that whatever Ariel wanted to buy would help Tooth right now, but it was worth a try. She was shivering under his arm. For him it looked like some kind of poisoning. He took care for Emma for far too long to not know the symptoms in this case. They should probably find bathroom and then drive her home… somehow. But what about Hiccup and Astrid? They can’t leave them here.

And suddenly, almost like Ruffnut could read minds, she asked:

“Hey, someone have seen Hiccup or Astrid?”

Tuffnut together with Snotlout shook their heads, mumbling that they didn’t see them since the Drinking Jenga game. Tooth next to him shook slowly her head, quickly covering her mouth. Aster shrugged, putting his hands in his pocket saying that he didn’t see them since the beginning of the party.

“I didn’t see Astrid for few hours, but Hiccup disappeared somewhere after our dance.” In the middle, Jack’s mind added. He tried to say it as casually as he could, but he wasn’t sure if he reached this goal.

Aster glanced at him. Maybe the taller teen felt the weird tone Jack unfortunately used?

Tuffnut, Ruffnut and Snotlout were totally different matter.

“You danced with Hiccup?” Snotlout asked, eyes wide as two plates that glinted with something amusing in it. “And no one told me? Why?”

Wait, what? What had dancing with Hiccup do to anything?

“Isn’t it normal to dance with my boyfriend?” Jack asked a little bit astonished. Tooth next to him sighed heavily and he massaged her arm, trying to soothe the tightened muscles.

Snotlout opened his mouth, then closed and repeated it two more times. Jack lifted his eyebrow and glanced at Aster. His friend had the same disbelieved look.

“But it’s Hiccup!” Snotlout finally shouted, throwing his hands in the air and spilling the beer from his can onto the twins who didn’t look like they even noticed it.

“Yeah and he danced well.” Too well actually. Jack would have never thought that someone like Hiccup could dance so… vigorously and lively.

“Really?” Ruffnut asked, looking astonished. “But you know, with his…”

But before Jack was able to hear the rest of what Ruffnut wanted to say, Tooth let the saddest and most miserable whine of her life. Jack saw her in many different situations, from the most joyful ones to the worst. He saw as she was ill, as she was crying, as she was laughing and smiling and cracking jokes. Now he could add another face to this collection.

“Jack… bathroom…”

He didn’t remember the last time he moved so fast when he scoped her in his arms and literally flew out of the kitchen. He heard Tuffnut yelling something about the last door on the first floor. He more over followed his directions without really thinking what they meant. The people made place for the famous Jackson Overland holding his friend and running like there was no tomorrow in mighty search for the bathroom and he was very thankful for that. No one wanted to get vomits on their clothes anyway.

The first floor was empty, but the last door was opened and there was light coming from it. Jack only hoped that there wasn’t any pair making out in the shower.

“We have a situation, move away!”

With few quick steps he defeated the distance. In this short span of time he was able to say that someone was indeed inside. One guest had her head leaning on the cupboard under the sink with someone else sitting next to her. Yet Jack had no time to actually look properly at the people who he interrupted as Tooth fell to her knees and threw up in the toilet.

At least they made it. Nice run Jack, he was thankful for his football trainings now more than ever.

Jack crouched next to her, caught locks that flew from the bun and pinned them together. The smell was definitely awful. He almost gagged on his own drinks and a little bit of food he got in his stomach, but he held strongly. Tooth was the most important now, he could live it.

He put his hand on her back and massaged it as best as he could, trying to soothe the tension away. Under his skin he felt the shudders of her spine as she emptied her stomach over and over again. They said that after vomiting you would feel better, right?

It feel like, maybe not eternity, but definitely some time until she stopped puking and turned her head a little, sending him the most dirty, miserable and sad excuse of a smile. Even in this kind of situation she tried to regain this small part of herself. Jack was amazed.

“Jack?”

He snapped his head up to finally stare at those two guest who he interrupted by barging inside.

Hiccup was sitting with his back leaning on the bathtub. He had his legs close to his chest with hands circled around them. Astrid – the second person – was laying on his side now, and not the cupboard, quite splattered there, snoring softly. Her face was also pale with small hints of green on her cheeks.

“Oh, hey…” What was he supposed to say? “Is Astrid… alright?”

The girl mumbled something under her nose and moved closer to her source of heat. Hiccup scrunched his nose. The overwhelming scent of pukes wasn’t probably high on the Hiccup’s list of the nicest smell form all around the world.

“I think now yes. Although she also threw up.” Hiccup spoke very quietly. He nodded his head at Tooth that now rested with closed eyes on the toilet. “Probably from the same reason as Tooth.”

Suddenly the girl lifted her face, moving her eyes to stare at the source of voice. Jack wasn’t certain, but he was almost one hundred percent sure she tried to make that miserable excuse of a smile once again.

“Oh… hey Hiccup… sorry for… puking in front of you.” That was a nice, almost all glued together sentence. Jack was proud of his friend.

Hiccup shrugged a little, but Astrid whined at that movement.

“I already saw Astrid. It couldn’t get any worse than this.”

Tooth giggled and when Jack though that it was over (weirdly too soon), Tooth leaned above the toilet and threw up once again.

“Jack, the hair!” Hiccup shouted.

“Ah yes!”

Seriously Jack never though he would be holding girl’s hair while she was throwing up on the party, but here he was. Life was indeed strange…

* * *

Almost an hour later Tooth became drowsy. Her sickness got a little bit better. Her friend – Ariel – walked in to give her a medicine. She quickly left, telling that she had to take care of the rest of the party. Apparently, someone had to drive the drunk people home and the mighty group was formed.

After that, it became quite quiet. Even for Hiccup, who all this time sat in one place. He wanted to help Jack with Tooth, but it looked like he was doing a splendid job at nursing (better than Hiccup anyway). Not to mention Astrid was sleeping on his arm and he didn’t want to wake her up.

Okay, so this party went from almost nice to disastrous in a pretty quick time. The wristwatch told him that it was already two a.m. Very early for the twins’ party, but Hiccup felt totally drenched out from his energy.

Nor he, nor Jack really talked much. Only when Tooth started to snore quietly, Jack relaxed and fell to the floor.

“Finally…” He whispered.

Hiccup could totally understand him. He had the same problem with Astrid. When she had finally closed her eyes for longer than five minutes, he had felt as the rest of the energy flew away. Now he was unable to move, not that he really wanted to.

Jack brushed his fringe away together with sweat that had formed there. He must be very stressed over his friend. If there was something that Hiccup now definitely knew, was the fact that the famous Jackson Overland – the school’s star – was caring very deeply for his friends and family.

Hiccup smiled under his nose, as Jack stared at Tooth leaning on the toilet, still with worried eyes. His hand fidgeted, like he wanted to move, pat her one more time, but in the end it didn’t go to her, but landed on Jack’s neck.

“Remind me to never come to twin’s party… or at least don’t do it for a month…” Jack murmured, massaging the muscles and breathing slowly in and out. His eyes wandered to the auburn haired teen. His lips twitched, even in this situation daring to form a small smile.

Hiccup felt his glasses slip down. Actually, he was quite uncomfortable. His back was touching the chilly tiles, making him cold. His hand, on which Astrid laid, became numb. He was smelling like vomits (because once Astrid didn’t really hit the toilet) and he was overall exhausted. And now he was even unable to see properly.

The blonde girl snuggled closer. At least Astrid was more over okay now.

Jack stared for few seconds at the smaller girl, his arms hunched up when she twitched, but it was nothing. She was just changing her position.

Hiccup bit his lip.

“Jack, take her away from the toilet. I think she is done. Plus someone might want to… use it.” It was a nice way to say that someone else might also want to throw up.

The white haired boy moved to her friend and put both hands under Tooth’s arms. He moved her away a little. She mumbled something under her nose, but nevertheless didn’t wake up. Jack looked around in search for some place to rest. His eyes landed on the spot between wall and Hiccup. Perfect for two people.

“Mind if I…?”

“Sure, go on.”

They both waddled there very awkwardly. Jack sat down and placed Tooth next to him, but she quickly slid down. He tried to make her sleep in curled up, but sitting position like Astrid’s one, but she was stubborn even in her sleep, so Jack threw in the sponge, allowing her to curl on the floor with her head on his legs.

Hiccup observed their work with tiny, amused smile. As the tension flew away he was simply enjoying the smallest things – such as Jack’s struggle to make his friend steady.

Jack sighed heavily with his arms slumping down and brushing on Hiccup’s side. There wasn’t much space, not to mention Hiccup had literally enough of everything to care about such closeness. Additional bonus - it made him warmer a little.

They sat awkwardly for some minutes. Jack stared forward at the slightly ajar door. His hand found its way onto girl’s head, combing through her colorful hair. Hiccup had his eyes downcast, staring at his hands. He listened to the muffled sound of music coming from the downstairs. It looked like the party was still going, although some of the chatters died down. He wondered if some people also got as sick as Astrid and Tooth.

The atmosphere between them was… dense. Hiccup felt out of place. He wasn’t a social person, it always took light years for him to warm up to people, but Jack was totally different matter. An exception. It wasn’t that Hiccup felt totally comfortable around him, but the barrier that often surrounded him when he was with other people was smaller. But not right now.

“Some night, right?” Jack finally asked. When Hiccup glanced at him, he wasn’t staring back. Huh, weird.

“Definitely an odd one, I must say.” Hiccup muttered, licking his dry lips. He wanted to drink something, but he had Astrid on one side and Jack on the other, so this was probably out of the question now. Maybe he should just focus on sleeping?

“Yeah…” Jack whispered.

Hiccup felt like that every time he was on a party. Small parties in their group? That was okay. Hiccup could almost say he liked them, even though twins always thought about doing something stupid. But with so many people around he felt… even smaller than he was. Out of this place. He wasn’t like Jack, or even Astrid, he couldn’t just walk to someone and talk. Just thinking about it made him freeze in place.

He couldn’t understand how people could enjoy it.

The silence wrapped them up. It was unnaturally tense, thick, like all atoms in the air suddenly tried to get closer and closer to each other. Hiccup knew it couldn’t happen of course, not without changing some parameter, but it felt like that. Maybe because Jack was unusually quiet. He almost always had something to say, something to add, some small remark to tell - to butt himself in the conversation. And now he was sitting silently next to the auburn haired teen. At first Hiccup thought it was because he was tired, but somehow it seemed wrong. Maybe because Jack glanced at him few times while opening his mouth once or twice. It reminded Hiccup of the first time they really talked, back at the Park when Jack wanted to ask if Hiccup would want to prolong their… fake-relationship. Back then he also was acting like that - unsure, unsteady, tense, uncomfortable, stiff.

He wanted to ask about something - this something was eating his mind. Hiccup was almost one hundred percent of it when Jack looked at him, but quickly averted his gaze as he saw Hiccup staring at him back intently.

How do you make people talk? He was never good at that. When his friends had problems they just told them without Hiccup forcing them to. Maybe they should just talk about something else and somehow move to what was bugging Jack?

Hiccup wasn’t so sure if it would work, but he had to try.

“So… did you enjoy the party?”

Hiccup wanted to facepalm himself, really hard, maybe even with a silica plate*. He wanted to disappear. He just asked Jack if he had fun after he had spent almost an hour helping his sick friend. Good job, Hiccup! Seriously… His social game was just too bad. Maybe he should just left his mouth closed.

When he peeked at Jack, he was looking at him with wide eyes.

“Just.. forget I even asked…”

Hiccup expect Jack to laugh at him. And Jack indeed chuckled at that. Hiccup quickly hid his face between his knees. The movement made Astrid wiggle a little and whine angrily in her sleep.

Hiccup didn’t expect Jack to answer him thought.

“I think that yes, I did… before all of this happened. Now I’m mostly concerned about Tooth and now also Astrid.”

Hiccup still felt his cheeks being warmer than usual, so he didn’t lift his head too much, only to be able to mumble without his voice being muffled by his clothes.

“Yeah, me too. I never saw her act like that on any party.”

“Do you know what happened?”

Hiccup shrugged.

“It’s look just like any typical poisoning if you ask me.” He muttered, lifting his head as someone laughed heavily somewhere on the corridor. Hiccup listened if someone was coming in their direction, but the coast was clear. He moved and felt his shirt riding up a little, which made him shiver when the naked skin touched the cold tiles. He wanted to correct it, but it was hard while being crushed between two people.

“I didn’t see her drink anything weird.” Jack said, moving back a little when Hiccup tried to grip the end of his shirt and move it down.

“Well, me neither. I only saw her mix something with some girls in the kitchen.” He bended his back, but, as he was not very stretched, his short fingers couldn’t catch the hem of his shirt. “But it was some time ago.”

“Come here, you klutz.”

Jack turned to him. Tooth whined, not happy for being forced to move around. Somehow, in the small space between them, Jack was able to grasp onto the end of Hiccup’s shirt and slowly tug it down. He accidentally brushed his fingers against Hiccup back’s skin and the auburn haired teen yelped, feeling the sudden rush of coldness.

“Sorry, I told you my hands are always cold.” Jack mumbled, as he moved away. Well as far away as he could, which was only a few centimeters away.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

And this was it. No funny remark, no stupid, dumb joke, no smile. Jack didn’t even look at him. He was just this stiff robot that felt obliged to help. Maybe Hiccup was thinking too much about it. Maybe there wasn’t anything wrong…?

Hiccup was probably just tired. First he was worried over Jack passing his test, then he was worrying over Dagur appearing on the party and after that Astrid got sick. He was now fully drained from power. He couldn’t even keep his eyes open for too long, it was only logical that his assessments were foggy and wrong. What was this - _‘The source of the biggest mistakes is the person who is doing the experiment’*_? Yeah, something like that.

“How about Astrid?” Jack suddenly prolonged the topic, when Hiccup expected him not to.

“I’m not sure. I know she has drunk something.” Hiccup also had drunk it. He remembered well the weird taste it left on his tongue, but back then he thought it was the whole stress. Now… he wasn’t so sure about it.

He left Jack in the middle of their dance, because he thought he would throw up. But as soon as he had met Astrid his body fought the urges down.

Oh gosh, he had left Jack all alone in the middle of the dance floor! Without even explaining! But how he was supposed to explain it back then? By vomiting on his shoes? Uh oh, no, no way! That was out of the question!

“And how about y…”

“Oh my gosh! Jack, I’m so sorry!”

The sudden shout that left Hiccup’s lips surprised even him. Astrid next to him lifted her hand and waved it, like she wanted to make that sound fly away. Tooth groaned angrily.

Jack blinked few times, but he looked at Hiccup:

“For what?”

“You know… for leaving you so suddenly on the dance floor.”

The white haired boy shuffled weirdly, almost… nervously? Like suddenly his whole body was itching and sitting next to Hiccup was very uncomfortable.

“Don’t mention it. Although you could say to me that I was a bad dancer and not run away…” The sentence was supposed to be funny. Or at least Hiccup thought that Jack was going for it. And it was accompanied by a smile, that small tug of the corners of Jack’s pale lips. But his eyes, his often sparkling, shiny, glittering eyes now were dulled. There was no light, there was no warm radiation coming from those icy, blue orbs. They were just… empty.

Why being a good dancer was suddenly so important to Jack? It wasn’t like he wanted to be a dancer in the future (or at least he didn’t tell Hiccup about it). Did Hiccup hurt him somehow? Well, leaving wasn’t nice, but still Hiccup didn’t think Jack would be a person who would be sulking about something as minor as dancing on the party.

Maybe there was something much deeper behind it? Just like colors of some chemical compounds. Pretty simple at first glance, you add something and voila! Colorful substance! But in reality the process is much, much more complicated. Maybe it was similar here. Maybe Hiccup accidentally pushed the wrong button?

He didn’t know. He was terrible at talking with people he barely knew! But something was definitely troubling Jack, making him act like it wasn’t him and it was… odd.

For some time Hiccup wasn’t sure how to answer. He wanted to help Jack somehow, because it felt that Jack was the only one that was doing something with their fake-relationship. Not to mention he already saved him thrice. And here was Hiccup, not doing anything.

So he braced himself, took deep breath and…

“You’re not a bad dancer…”

Jack didn’t move, he didn’t even twitch. Nothing in his appearance showed that he was listening, yet after some seconds he answered:

“Thanks, but you don’t have to try so hard…”

Ugh, why this guy was so dense!? It was now royally pissing him off.

“No, Jack, you are not a bad dancer! On the contrary, you were very, very good!” Hiccup huffed, turning his head to the other side to not scowl in front of him. “And I really, really mean it…”

The white hared teen next to him took deep breath and turned his head at Hiccup.

“Then why did you run away?”

Well, Jack deserved an honest answer or at least some of it. Hiccup looked back at him.

“Probably because of Astrid’s drink. I told myself that I wouldn’t drink, but when Dagur approached me, I just had to busy myself somehow and then…well… let’s just say that I didn’t want to throw up on your shoes.”

Jack’s eyes widened suddenly and then his lips transformed into that typical, oh-so-childish, but very kind grin. And suddenly it felt like all this exhaustion, tiredness, fatigue disappeared. The white haired boy threw his head back and laughed, covering his eyes with his hand.

Hiccup waited for his fake-boyfriend to calm down, smiling along the way. It looked like he somehow was able to lift the boy’s mood up.

“Oh gosh now I feel so stupid.” Jack finally breathed out. Then he returned his eyes at him and in a second the concern beamed from them. It was amazing how many feelings were Jack able to store in those eyes. “But are you feeling alright now?”

Hiccup nodded.

“Well I didn’t throw up. I met Astrid here and she needed help, so somehow I was able to overcome it. Who would hold her hair if I would also be vomiting?”

Jack chuckled one more time. His whole body suddenly relaxed, almost slumping next to Hiccup. Actually, they both even moved a little bit down.

“Yeah, what have we become… friends that hold hair while they’re vomiting. I can cross that off the bucket list.”

And just like that the always light, happy atmosphere returned.

“I don’t even want to know what you also have there.” Hiccup said. He put his hand on Astrid’s arm and lifted a little her body.

Jack in the same time moved Tooth’s blue fringe away to check if everything was alright. But as he sighed in content Hiccup guessed that they had nothing to worry about. Right now, that is.

“Well dancing with the smartest guy in our school is also crossed off the bucket list.”

Hiccup heard it many times, from his friends, from teachers, from other people that just found out about his grades or prizes in contests. But in reality, Hiccup never really felt that special. So he had good grades. It wasn’t because he was really smart, but because he was able to sit and learn. Okay, maybe there were some exceptions like physics or chemistry, but still Hiccup didn’t think about himself as some kind of genius. So whenever he heard someone praise him like that, he cringed inside. Because he didn’t deserve it. Grades literally showed nothing about the human. He wasn’t the smartest guy in the whole school. Nerd? Probably.

And this time was no different. Just hearing those words made him somehow drop inside.

“Heh, yeah…” His hand maneuvered above Astrid’s head after he pushed the fringe away. “Glad to be any help.”

The sudden drop of his voice was probably pretty audible. Or maybe Jack just got weird ability of sensing the sudden change in someone behavior and emotions, because not even a second later he was nudging Hiccup’s side with his own elbow.

“But hey, you danced pretty good. Why aren’t you dancing more often?”

“Well…” They were slowly moving in that territory. Territory called - total embarrassment/maximum awkwardness.

Hiccup bit his lip, feeling as his cheeks turn red when the sudden warmness spread over them. He was so glad that the light was switched off. Hiccup even turned his head, suddenly very interested in crooked tiles under the sink, but it was futile, as Jack suddenly poked his cheek.

“It must be really embarrassing to get you so flustered.” Jack said, moving a little closer, when Hiccup tried to move away. When there was literally no space, Jack pinched his cheeks and cooed sweetly. “Awwww~”

“Stop it!” Hiccup pushed his hand away, but still his face was heated up like it was about to be calcinate.

“Tell me!”

“Nope!”

“Hiccup!” Jack whined. He moved an inch away with his smile not even faltering for a second. “You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention, so tell me!”

His brain processed quickly what Jack had just said. Hiccup stopped moving. Then he slowly turned to the taller teen.

“Did you just… memed me?” Hiccup asked.

Jack shrugged, looking like the most innocent puppy in the whole world.

“Maybe… So now, after I showed you my great knowledge in memes… Will you tell me?”

Hiccup sighed heavily. Was he seriously about to do it? But he could still gain a little from it, right?

“Okay, but in exchange you have to tell me something embarrassing about yourself too!” Hiccup looked him right in the eyes, trying to look as serious as he could be while sitting in the bathroom with drunk friends that were sleeping on them. “Deal?”

“Deal.” Wow, there was literally no pause between those sentences. Almost like Jack expected it. And the weird glint in his shadowed eyes didn’t really help. Jack showed him his hand to conceal their agreement. Hiccup shook their hands. “So what happened to make you so embarrassed?”

Was he really about to tell it? Well, now was no turning back, because they already shook on it. Plus, he was quite curious what Jack’s most embarrassing story was.

“Okay, but you can’t tell it to anyone. Especially the twins!” Hiccup started, as his hand moved to his head and pushed his glasses higher. “Promise me this!”

Jack grinned, but crossed his heart with the other hand raised in the air.

“Cross my heart! Now tell me. The curiosity is eating me!”

Hiccup took deep breath, which he then exhaled slowly through his teeth. His cheeks were still aflame. He patted them quickly. Here goes nothing!

“Were you on the twins’ party four months ago? The one where… Marshall*… I guess it was Marshall… started a fight with some dude?”

“No, I mean I heard about it later, but I wasn’t on this one.” Jack shook his head while speaking.

“Good, okay. So it happened at this party. And I don’t remember why, but I was in really bad mood… Maybe because of Dagur, but I’m not sure right now. But I actually got some drinks. Well… actually, I drank a lot.” Hiccup glanced at Jack, who was staring at him, now with a little puzzled look. “And you know how drunk people act and I was no exception.” Oh gosh, oh gosh… ”I don’t remember well what happened back then, but Astrid told me later that I was literally everywhere. “ He started to play with his fringe. “But I’m going a little off topic. So the case was that I was… a little bit more social and then this one dude asked me to dance with him.” Hiccup was glad that the image of the boy’s face was a little bit fogged in his mind. “So we danced… And I might have enjoyed it too much… and…”

Jack moved an inch closer.

“And?”

Hiccup heard his heart in his ears. Now his face was literally burning, probably as red as methyl red or iron(III) thiocyanate. Maybe the second option was closer to the truth as blood rushed to his face*.

“I… gave… him… a… boner…”

He tried to say it really quiet. He even expected that someone would yell something from the living room, silencing the rest and end of the story. But nothing like this happened. His whisper was audible, even echoing a little around the walls.

“What? Really?!”

Hiccup hid his face in his hands.

“Really. I saw it. I felt it! Oh my gosh, this was so embarrassing and weird.” He whined.

Jack next to him literally trembled. When Hiccup pecked at him from between his fingers he was biting his lip very hard with his cheeks puffed and also very, very red. His eyes were glossy, with small droplets of tears gathering in the corners.

“So…” Jack somehow gasped, without bursting into full laughter. “What… happened then?”

“He just left in the middle of the dance… for which I’m glad and I have never seen him again. Nor that I really remember his face too well.” The smaller teen finally turned to his companion. “Jack, Jack don’t die! Just laugh, don’t hold it inside.” Because seriously, he looked like he could explode any second when he tried to contain it.

Jack threw his head back, but before he was able to start laughing, he hit the tiles behind his head and he cursed loudly in exchange.

So now Hiccup chuckled. Karma worked nicely this day or night or evening or whatever.

Massaging his head, Jack turned to his fake-partner with pained look on his face, although his lips shivered, still trying to form a smile.

“Okay, that is… was… definitely embarrassing story. I don’t know if I can beat that.”

Hiccup shrugged, his lock which he was yanking until now was wet from sweat.

“You can always try.”

Jack moved his hand from the back of his head to the front where he pushed his fringe away.

“Wait, I can’t think so fast! I didn’t even prepare my most…” Then his mouth stretched and he yawned wildly. “…embarrassing story.”

“Well you don’t have to do it right now, but some day definitely.” Hiccup stared at Jack – the white haired teen was looking back at him, but with weirdly faraway look.

Hiccup quickly glanced at his wristwatch. It was half past three a.m. and the party downstairs was still going on. He wondered if some more people got sick, but if yes, then he wasn’t curious how did the bottom floor looked like. Judging by Astrid and Tooth it could be very bad. And guess who would need to clean it tomorrow and help every drunk person! This guy!

“Jack, go to sleep, you look exhausted.”

The boy’s eyelids were now glued to each other. He tried to keep them open, but it looked like a lost fight from the very beginning.

“But how about… you?” Jack mumbled.

“I will probably fall asleep sooner or later.” When he will finally find a comfortable position, that is. When Jack opened his mouth to add something, Hiccup spoke one more time. “Seriously, go to sleep. You look like a dead guy.”

“If you say so…” Jack slurped a little and then brushed his mouth. He shook his head, like he wanted to clear his dazed mind. “Then, I’ll take your offer…” His body slumped down a bit as he straightened his legs. His head was now near Hiccup’s shoulder. “Can I?”

Hiccup looked down when Jack hesitantly put his head near his arm, but not exactly put it down. He was looking at the smaller teen from half-opened eyes. And who was Hiccup to refuse someone who was on the edge of falling asleep? He coped somehow with Astrid who was smelling of vomits, so he can live with Jack sleeping on him too.

“Go on.”

With a happy smile, Jack put his head down and closed his eyes. His hair tickled Hiccup’s neck a little and he was glad that Jack wasn’t moving a lot. It was only one night, not to mention they both deserved a break.

Hiccup had all intentions of falling asleep too. He just wasn’t used to do so in an uncomfortable positions and in unfamiliar places. Well, at least now he couldn’t complain about feeling cold, as he was smashed between Jack and Astrid. He could almost say that it was too hot.

He exhaled slowly the air through his nose. Someone downstairs laughed violently, it sounded suspiciously familiar to Tuffnut. Maybe it was even him, they probably wouldn’t go to sleep till the last guest was alive.

After few minutes Hiccup also felt his eyes fall down with the numb feeling overpowering his limbs. He felt as his mind slowly drifted away and he was almost on the verge of losing it, when he heard a whisper next to his ear.

“I’m glad that I didn’t mess that up…”

Was Hiccup sleeping? The weird images danced, swirled under his eyelids, but the sound seemed like it came from the real life.

“Mess what?” The auburn haired boy managed to ask.

“Dancing. I thought that I was good at it…”

Hiccup opened his eyes, returning for a brief moment to the world of living.

“You are good at it…”

Jack smiled lopsidedly with his head moving a little to find more comfortable position. Hiccup wasn’t even sure if he was aware of what he was saying or if it was only a gibberish of half-asleep person. Probably the second option.

“Yeah, thanks…” Came the reply from the taller teen.

For another minutes there was silence. Jack’s breath evened as his arms started to move slowly up and down rhythmically, almost like a sine wave. Hiccup stared at him for few seconds, checking if he would say anything more. But when it looked like it wouldn’t happen, he tried one more time to make himself as comfortable as he could, which resulted in him only bringing his legs closer to his chest and wrapping his hands around them. Astrid next to him slumped a little down, but she still was holding nicely onto his one side.

Hiccup put his face on his knees and closed eyes, trying to bring back the same dizziness from before, allowing him to finally fall asleep and… relax. Because heck, he didn’t remember the last time he felt so tired.

He was literally on the verge, with one leg already on the other side, the beautiful dream calling to him in its sweet voice when Jack one more time spoke:

“I didn’t want… to mess another thing up…”

But Hiccup fell asleep before he could ask what Jack meant.

* * *

Waking up was definitely peculiar. Every bone, joint, muscle, nerve in his body literally ached from discomfort. Not to mention he smelled. Or maybe it wasn’t him, but the whole room. Even thought that he could and would sleep another hour or two or maybe four in his bed, this wasn’t his bed, so he had to wake up.

But well, he felt warm so that was a plus in this situation.

Jack somehow opened his eyes. It was quite dark in the bathroom. The only source of light was a thin streamlet of luminosity coming from the corridor. Very strong light. Jack could even bet that it was the Sun shining through some window in the corridor. So it was already morning, but which hour?

He blinked few times and yawned. Yep, definitely too less sleep. He still felt the tiredness swimming through his veins. If only he could burrow himself under some covers and sleep a little more…

His ears caught some mumble. He looked down at Tooth that was still surprisingly laying down with her head on his lap, but now curled completely. Her sweater laid on her arms. Did someone put it there? Was someone inside while they were sleeping? Jack didn’t remember waking up.

He moved his head to the other side. Hiccup was sleeping softly, with partly opened mouth. His head was on his bended knees and whole body leaned on Jack. Astrid on his other side was also asleep with her head on Hiccup’s arm, in similar way to Jack’s one when he woke up.

He exhaled deeply. Was it really so early that everyone was still asleep?

“Jack… are you awake?”

Maybe not.

“Did I wake you up?” Jack put both his hands on the cold floor and hoisted himself up a bit.

Hiccup next to him lifted his head from his knees, as he also had to move with Jack. His glasses were twisted, hanging only by one end on his ear. The green orbs still were a little bit foggy. It took him few second to focus his gaze on Jack.

“Kind of.” The auburn haired boy mumbled. His one hand moved to his face, where he corrected his glasses.

“What’s the time?”

Hiccup glanced at his wristwatch. His arm was bended, so Jack wasn’t able to see the clock face.

“Seven… twenty-four…” He finally said, studying the watch quite closely for few seconds.

“Oh…” That explained why he still wanted to go to sleep. He never wakes up so early on the weekends (with maybe few exceptions).

Jack stared at the slightly opened door. He took his sweet time for his body to fully wake up. If he could he would fall asleep any second, but they had things to do, like return homes, but most importantly help their friends get home.

“Should we wake them up?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Huh boy, this was definitely something new in his life. Jack always loved new experiences, but maybe he preferred a little bit more optimistic ones than waking up the sick and drunk friend. Well, she shouldn’t be so drunk anymore.

He put his hand on Tooth’s cold arm and slowly shook it. The girl only murmured something in response, swashing his hand away. Jack knew it wouldn’t be so easy, so he did it one more time, but this time he added his voice.

“Tooth, wake up…”

This worked a little bit better, because the girl slowly lifted her head from his laps. Her glossy eyes wandered around the room to finally land on him. It took her some time to recognize her friend, but then she slowly started to get up. One of her red lock from the back got glued to her forehead.

“I’m up…” She stammered, brushing away the red hair from her face. She still looked out of this world. But Jack probably looked also like that few minutes ago.

“Now you are. How are you feeling?”

“Bad… Definitely bad.” Tooth responded, touching her forehead with the back of her hand. “Like someone just drove over me. Or parked on me. Or hit me in the head… and stomach…”

“Well, that is normal, I guess…” Jack looked at Hiccup who was lifting Astrid from his arm. The girl’s head rolled to the side and she snorted heavily. “We need to get you home. Can you stand up?”

Tooth nodded slowly. She put her hand on the ground and slowly started to stand up. In the middle she swayed heavily to one side, so Jack quickly jumped and helped her stand properly.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, just dizzy.” Tooth smiled crookedly. She put her hand on his arm, steadying herself.

Astrid behind them groaned heavily.

“I feel like shit…”

They both turned around to spot Astrid also standing, but she was fully draped over Hiccup who looked like he could fall down any second under the additional weight. His legs literally trembled beneath him.

“You okay?” Jack asked very quietly, moving one step toward him.

Hiccup sent him a small grin.

“I’ll survive…” He whispered back.

With one strong tug he put Astrid back on her feet. She swayed to the side quite quickly and both Jack and Hiccup threw their hands to stop her from crashing down, but she regained her stand-up position.

“Everything is under control.” Astrid said, with a small awry smile.

They both exhaled loudly. Everyone was standing now. Jack, when he caught Hiccup’s eyes, pointed with his head at the door. Time to see damages done to the house and find the rest of the people.

They moved awfully slowly, because as soon as they exited the sweet darkness of the bathroom Astrid started to get dizzy and she had to lean on Hiccup. They had to wait few second for the feeling to subside. She then thanked him and they returned to their journey.

The house was quiet…. terribly quiet. Jack could hear the birds chirping outside, well those birds that didn’t move south for the winter. Even rustling of the leaves was audible in that atmosphere, giving it an almost deadly feeling. Ugh, he didn’t like it.

They slowly moved down the stairs to find the living room in total destruction. Maybe not destruction, but a mess. Definitely a big one. The red cups were laying everywhere. Walls were decorated in weird stains, some more concentrated (like someone spilled something there) and some weirdly alone. Floor was almost invisible under trash and dried puddles of beverages. And not to mention there were even some people scattered around, sleeping in weird poses and in even odder places (like seriously, there was a girl sleeping under the table). Jack was suddenly very glad for his choice of bedroom for this one night.

“Oh, glad to see you alive.”

Jack turned to the kitchen where Aster was making… tea? He was only throwing bags inside four cups that stood in a line.

“Well, most of us are alive.” Jack said. He helped Tooth move and sit on one of the tools standing near the giant table.

She thanked him while slumping down. The gray haired boy looked at her, then glanced at Astrid and took another four cups from the cupboard above him. The electric kettle started to jump wildly next to him.

Hiccup put Astrid down next to Tooth. He himself sat on the chair next to it. Jack took his seat next to his rainbow haired friend.

Aster in the meantime poured boiling water inside the cups, added honey and then passed them around. Jack first moved the cup to Tooth. He nudged her to take a sip. She wrapped it in her palms and slowly started to blow on it.

Jack caught the ear of the cup and then he moved it closer to himself. He stared as Aster took one more cup and sit next to Hiccup, who, very surprisingly, didn’t even notice it, as he was busy waking Astrid up.

“So that was fun night, that’s for sure.” Aster said. “My tank is almost empty, I hope I will be somehow able to drive home.”

“Well, I think that many people can agree with you.” Jack looked into the living room, when someone snorted heavily. “When they’ll wake up, that is…”

Astrid finally took her own cup and took a sip, but quickly yelped, when she found out that it was made few seconds ago.

“Remind me to never drink on Ruff’s and Tuff’s parties…” She whined, her mouth formed a small ‘o’ as she started to puff on her drink.

“Where they are exactly anyway?” Hiccup asked reaching finally for his cup.

Jack observed as the small boy reached for the cup, but as it was a little bit too far away Aster moved his hand and pushed it closer. Well, the surprise suddenly beaming from the auburn haired teen was hilarious. However he quickly thanked the taller teen and returned to his slumping position on the chair.

“Well, they…” Aster started to be immediately stopped by Ruffnut walking inside the kitchen through the door leading to the small backyard. Why they had it in kitchen was a mystery for Jack.

“I’m alive, I’m alive!” She shouted. The door crashed into the opposite wall. Everyone flinched hearing this sound with Tooth and Astrid groaning loudly. She then moved to the counter and took one cup. She jumped on it and then took a small hesitant sip. “I see that everyone is as alive as the rest.”

“Define alive?” Jack grinned at the girl.

She took another sip. With one hand she threw her braid behind her back.

“Well definitely more alive than Snotlout and my bro.” She snickered suddenly and hid her mouth behind the cup.

“So where are they?” Hiccup asked, lifting his head at Ruffnut.

“Oh, in the bathroom…”

And in that exact moment they heard a sound of someone puking. Jack shuddered hearing it when it brought back bad memories from previous… this night.

“Okay, wait stop…” Jack lifted his hand. “Then why were you in the garden exactly?”

Ruffnut waved her legs. She put the cup down.

“You know, every bathroom was taken at night… Some more taken than the others.” Here she wiggled her eyebrow at Hiccup who banged his head on the table seeing it. “And they got a little bit sick, so they decided that bushes were also good as a quick replacement for a bathroom. I had to see the damages they did to mom’s roses.”

“I assume she won’t be too happy with how they look right now…” Hiccup mumbled with his face still glued to the surface. Astrid, who also laid in similar position, turned to him and giggled.

“You’re right bud. She definitely won’t be.”

Then they all heard Tuffnut calling his sister from the bathroom. Ruffnut rolled her eyes, but jumped off the counter and took the remaining two cups in her hands.

“Well, it was nice to see you.”

“Do you need help with cleaning?” Hiccup lifted his face and turned to her.

Jack blinked. Yeah, the house looked like a mess, almost like a tornado ran through it.

“Naah. I got Sinbad up for this job. I mean… he is responsible for bringing the bad alcohol , so he had to atone for his sins.” She shrugged, smiling at them. “But anyway, I catch you all later. I have some dudes to take care of!” She then moved away, disappearing into the corridor directing her to the bathroom.

Jack looked at Hiccup and Aster who were following Ruffnut with their eyes.

“I guess that explains them well.” Jack said as he pointed at Tooth and Astrid.

“I’m never drinking here anymore…” Astrid whined. She took another sip of her tea.

“Yeah, tell yourself that.” Hiccup added which resulted in a smack from her to the back of his head. Guess she was starting to return to the land of living.

* * *

They all packed themselves in Aster’s car and even though he said his tank was almost empty, he drove them all back home (maybe because they stopped to fill it up, but that was beside the point).

Tooth and Astrid looked definitely better. The rainbow haired girl even cracked a small joke when she was exiting the car in front of her house. Jack stared after her as she walked back home and only leaned back on the front seat when the door to her house closed after her.

Hiccup, for that matter, asked Astrid ten times if she was okay or if she needed help with anything. She groaned, but with a warm smile told him that she will somehow survive this four meter walk to her door. Nevertheless, Hiccup also followed her posture until the door closed after her.

Hiccup’s home was next. Aster parked somewhere on the curb.

“So this is your stop.” He said as he turned on his seat, still with the car turned on.

Hiccup, who until now was slowly starting to fall back asleep, woke up, turned to the driver and nodded. He looked like he was taken out from some trance. Or maybe he was probably pretty tired.

Jack totally understood it. The cold floor of the bathroom wasn’t the nicest bed in the whole universe, not to mention he remembered falling asleep still talking with the auburn haired boy. So he probably had less sleep than Jack did. Everyone would be tired in his shoes. But he seriously looked like he was on the edge of consciousness when he slowly tried to pry open the door. He did it after the third try.

“Thanks for the lift.” He mumbled, as he leaned inside and looked at Aster, smiling a little.

Aster nodded in return, tapping the steering wheel with his finger.

“No problem.”

Hiccup then turned to Jack.

“And Jack… thanks for you know… everything else. I guess I’ll see you later?”

Jack showed him a thumb up, grinning broadly.

“You bet. Now go get some more sleep.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes playfully.

“I’m planning too.” He said, but still with a small beam closed the door and turned to walk to his home.

Both he and Aster observed as Hiccup moved slowly, step after step to the front door. Jack had his hand on the door’s handle in case he had to quickly jump out of the car and catch the falling asleep boy (he knew it was futile, because Hiccup would already crash on the ground until Jack would be out of the vehicle, but it made him feel a little bit better). But it looked like it wasn’t needed, as Hiccup stopped in front of the door and took out the keys.

Almost, because he tripped while walking inside.

“Ouch.” Jack flinched seeing it. “But he was close.”

“Very close.” Aster mumbled and changed the gear.

* * *

The rest of the Saturday went fine. Well, as fine as you can call sleeping half of it, because after entering his house, Hiccup only had strength to wash himself (very thoroughly he had to say, even though his eyes were glued), throw his clothes into the washer, turn it on and give Toothless some food. Then he was out of this world for few hours.

He woke up in time for his dad coming home from work. For few minutes he tried to fall back asleep, but when he smelled the delicious scent of food he had to wake up. He was actually pretty hungry. Hiccup quickly jumped out of the bed (which received him a hiss from Toothless which got comfortable near his back) to run downstairs.

Indeed Stoick was cooking something. When Hiccup not so nicely burst into the living room, he lifted his face from the pot and greeted him with a nod.

“O hey Hiccup, I didn’t expect you to be up so quick. But you made it on time for dinner then.” The man smiled as he kneeled and took two plates from the cupboard.

“Gladly, because I’m starving.” Hiccup whined. He moved to sit on the stool. Toothless followed after him and jumped on his lap.

“You know the fridge is full. You could always make something for yourself.” Stoick muttered joyfully while pouring soup on two plates. He then distributed them on the table. He sat on the chair in front of Hiccup.

“Too tired for that.” Hiccup stated, grabbing the spoon and starting to eat.

For few minutes they didn’t talk, because they were busy eating. Stoick spread over the newspaper. His eyes were moving from one corner to the other, like a metronome, reading articles that only caught his interest. Which were often about something related to the economic. Being the boss of a big corporation made you learn new habits – like became interested in exchange rates. As a kid Hiccup totally couldn’t understand his father interest in giant tables with numbers. He remembered that he also used to stare at them, nodding when Stoick was making comment, even though he didn’t understand a single thing. Now it was different. Hiccup often found himself now looking at them while reading information too.

“So how was the party?” Lifting his head from the second page, the man suddenly asked.

Hiccup stopped moving his spoon when he had to shrug in response.

“It was…” Weird, odd, smelly, loud, crowded? “Fine…” Also could be.

“Good, good. I’m glad then.”

Hiccup smiled as he returned to eating. When he was ending his portion, he looked up at his father. Stoick’s eyebrows were furrowed, dangerously close to each other as he stared at the page. Yet it didn’t look like he was actually reading, but thinking about something. His one hand brushed his beard.

“Something on your mind?” Hiccup asked. He slowly stood up from the stool and circled the table to put the dish into the sink.

The man sighed heavily.

“Just… the past…” Stoick muttered, his voice suddenly very different from the usually booming one - the one which often made Hiccup’s ears hurt.

“The past?” Hiccup parroted, not really understanding what his father meant and also trying to show his father to continue this topic.

“I got a letter from an old friend asking for a meeting.” Stoick turned the page of his newspaper.

“And you… plan to meet him or her?” Hiccup asked, glancing at his father and moving to the electric kettle. He switched the button on.

Hiccup rarely heard his father being unsure about anything. Stoick was always straightforward. He had strict rules that he followed. There wasn’t many times when he wasn’t sure about something. So seeing him like that was something new for Hiccup. But now he didn’t know if this was a good experience.

“I don’t know.” Stoick took deep breath. “I mean, he made quite a mess some time ago…”

_‘I didn’t want… to mess another thing up…’_

Hiccup blinked when he heard a familiar voice inside his ears. It felt so vivid, so real, that he was almost sure Jack was standing next to him.

He moved to the cupboard and took out two cups. He also threw inside tea bags, just in time with the kettle turning off.

“Sooo… do I know him?” Hiccup tentatively asked, pouring water inside. After a second thought, he stood on his tiptoes and took a jar of honey from one cupboard.

“No, I don’t think I ever told you about him. He was a part of quite… unpleasant past.”

“So you kind of cut every tie with him. Is this what I’m supposed to think?”

They rarely talked like that. Of course, Hiccup knew a lot about his father’s past (what was he doing when he was a teenager, where he was working before he became a boss… just, you know, typical stuff), but he never heard about any unpleasant parts. At least so unpleasant that made Stoick act like that. Okay, they may, may not have some wild rides with Gobber in their youth (Stoick always glared at his friend when he was starting talking about it), yet this was different. It was something on a different lever - it was a higher caliber of problem.

“I don’t know. I guess time did that for us.”

Hiccup hummed, not sure how he should answer that. He added one spoon of honey to each tea and then took both cups. He put one near Stoick’s hand. There was still half of his meal on the plate. Weird. It must be really bugging him to not finish dinner.

“Here…” Hiccup mumbled, when Stoick turned to look at the cup with steaming tea. “I can’t do much, but listen…”

Stoick smiled at him tiredly, but very sincerely. When was the last time Hiccup saw his father do that?

“Sometimes it’s enough. Thanks…”

Hiccup smiled back. Or at least he tried to. He wasn’t sure if he did it correctly.

“If you need something, I’ll be up in my room.”

“Okay. I need to work a little bit at home anyway.”

Not knowing if he was able to do more, Hiccup took his tea and moved up the stairs to his room. He felt bad for leaving his father like that, but what could he do more? It didn’t look like his father was up for talking much about it and Hiccup didn’t want to pressure the man. Interacting was so hard. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to help. He did! But what more was he able to do?

For now, nothing.

Hiccup sighed as he waited with open door for Toothless to trudge inside. After that, he closed the door and moved to the desk. He turned on his laptop.

Toothless in this time moved to the window. Then he turned and stared at the auburn haired boy very, very expectantly.

“Okay, bud I got this, but be quick, it looks like it’s going to start raining soon.” Hiccup mumbled, standing up and opening the window for Toothless to go.

He left it a little bit pried open, so his cat could return home without making noise under his window. It had happened too many times in the past for Hiccup to not learn his lesson.

When his computer finished turning on, he quickly clicked the Skype’s icon. He saw that Astrid was online, so he decided to write to her.

_Ya alive?_

And he waited. And waited and waited and waited, but she didn’t respond. Hiccup groaned. Great, she probably was asleep with her computer turned on. What was he supposed to do now? He did his whole homework for this week (he liked his weekend to be free, thank you very much) and he needed to go to library for new books that he ordered. Maybe he should watch some movie? There was a pretty good movie Fishlegs suggested for Hiccup to watch (coming to this, he was also off the skype), but somehow he wasn’t up for watching it. Maybe he should move on with his project for this robotic contest he was participating in?

To be honest he didn’t know why he got himself into it. He liked to build small things and program, but he wasn’t very good at it. He told his teacher about not being sure, yet Mister Robinson pressed Hiccup to participate and it looked like it paid off for him, because Hiccup agreed. He had nothing to lose, he could only gain from it. So now he was on the part of simply projecting and planning first sketches, however Hiccup wasn’t very happy with the result. He had a feeling this wasn’t it, that this was missing something.

The topic of the contest wasn’t helping him much, as there wasn’t any real theme of it. The only requirements were the size of the machine that participants need to build and that was all. Which for some people would be good, but for Hiccup… not so much. He need some kind of direction, some kind of solid ground to start working with, some first small spark of idea… And he got nothing.

So at first Hiccup wanted to make a small moving robot that would distribute cutlery around the table, because it was simple and programming it wouldn’t be too hard (or at least he hoped so). But…

He took out the blueprint and stared at the first prototypes of the machine. He bit into the end of the pencil he found laying somewhere on his desk. Ha managed to get under the required measurements, so now he should only focus on which parts he should use – like what kind of metal, screw, gears, shafts should he use, but he couldn’t put his mind on it.

Thankfully Astrid saved him with her reply.

_Yes, yes I’m alive… somehow… but still feel like shit D:_

Hiccup smirked under his nose and moved to reply. He quickly tapped the buttons on the keyboard and stared at the appearing sentence.

_Yeah, you looked like one xP_

And… sent! Yeah, he was such a good friend.

_Ha ha very funny, mizzter smart pants. Like you smelled any better ;D_

He pushed away the project and moved the laptop closer to him.

_That because you were sleeping on me .___._

_Yeah and you’re a bad pillow, let me tell you that =3=_

_Good, because I wasn’t mean to be a pillow D: < Okaay, but seriously, everything’s okay? For a second I thought I need to call an ambulance there._

Hiccup never really saw Astrid like that. He never really took care of a drunk person, well a drunk person that was throwing up every minute, so he was scared, terrified, frightened and he didn’t know what to do. He could have run for help, but he didn’t. He couldn’t think properly back then. And now he was shivering while thinking about it.

_Nah, everything okay. Just very bad poisoning. My stomach hurts, but I’ll live :3_

Hiccup sighed, relieved by reading it. He heard some sound coming from the window, but he didn’t pay it any attention really.

_That’s good to her. Don’t scare me anymore like that! D:_

_It wasn’t my fault, it isn’t like I wanted to get poisoned .___._

Toothless jumped through the window and shook his body. Staring at Hiccup, he trotted in his direction. He circled around the laptop, purring softly, trying to gain his owner attention.

Hiccup only petted him under his chin.

_I know, just… really… I was scared D:_

_Awww you do care my little, baby Hiccup =DDDdd~_

_Don’t call me small D:! You know… I’m only below average._

_Its called ‘being small’ genius…_

Toothless suddenly meowed and jumped on his lap. Hiccup bounced with a small yelp when he felt something sticky touching him. He looked down, just in time to see Toothless leaving few brow paw prints on his jeans.

“Toothless!”

The cat only looked at him and purred loudly.

Hiccup sighed as he looked at the window. Yes indeed, it was raining outside. The weird sound was the droplets of rain hitting the roof.

Hiccup liked rain. He loved to lay down in his bed and read book, while the storm was raging outside. But he definitely didn’t like Toothless walking into his room with wet paws and stomping on… everything.

The boy glanced at his desk, or to be more precise his blueprints now covered in dark spots.

“Toothless! You ruined my project!” Hiccup shouted, reaching for the white page that was now decorated with small brown points. He knew he didn’t really like it, but it wasn’t so bad!

Toothless only bumped his head on Hiccup’s chin. Then he looked at him with the most innocent and pleading eyes Hiccup had ever seen.

The boy scoffed when he moved himself away from the desk.

“You’re should be glad that I love you. And that it is raining outside.”

He stood up and moved to the commode near his wardrobe where he often kept his weird stuff. He kneeled and pulled out one shelf. His Cartridge pad was laying peacefully there. Hiccup took it and opened, planning to take one page out and start from the beginning, but he found out… that there was no more free pages left.

Okay, this may be a problem then. Not to mention he wanted to start doing his project for physic and for it he also needed this paper. So this meant that he needed to visit some stationery shop, probably pretty fast. Monday seemed like a good day for small shopping. He needed to check what else he needs too.

Hiccup stood up and turned his head at the desk - it was fully covered in brown points scattered everywhere in chaotic pattern.

“What a mess…” The auburn haired teen mumbled to himself.

_‘I didn’t want… to mess another thing up…’_

Hiccup blinked and looked around, even though he knew he wouldn’t see anyone here, beside him and Toothless of course. But the sudden voice seemed so real, like Jack was really standing next to him, in his half daze. This was ridiculous, bizarre, uncomfortable…

Hiccup sat in front of his computer.

And why was he even thinking about it? Wasn’t it just some sleepy person talk?

Was Jack’s life a mess? From Hiccup point of view – a typical bystander – Jack had everything. Friends, loving family, intelligence. He only didn’t have good grades, but that wasn’t the key to happiness. Not to mention he was handsome (which would definitely help him at some points in his life, or totally destroy it in others). But this was only the external evaluation. Something that every person that knew Jack a little could say.

Hiccup knew Jack only a little in the end, didn’t he? He only knew the outside of Jack, he didn’t really know the true Jack. But he had few glimpses of it. So, summing everything Jack’s life couldn’t be a mess…

Yet, he was saying that it was. Did Hiccup was overthinking it? More like, why it was bugging him so much? They weren’t close friends. Should they be even called friends? Maybe? Well, this night definitely brought them a little bit closer, but were they friends? What would Jack do if Hiccup would simply ask him about it?

Does Hiccup want to be Jack’s friend? Probably. Did they just suddenly step on some weird level of their relationship? Maybe because of that Hiccup was thinking about it so much.

Because it didn’t seem right. Jack was always smiling, always grinning, always full of life, always optimistic. What was that? _‘The loneliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do.’*_ Maybe Jack was like that. Outside all happy and inside a black hole?

Something deep inside Hiccup clenched thinking about it.

Should he ask Jack about it? But wasn’t this kind of overstepping some boundaries? Hiccup wouldn’t want for some people to ask him very personal questions. Was it a personal matter to Jack? Probably yes, maybe, kind of... Would Jack talk with him about it if Hiccup would ask? Ugh… why social interactions were so difficult! Why dealing with people was so hard? Why was he thinking so much about it?! Why he had more questions than answers! He felt like he barely had any answer at all!

_Ya alive there?_

Hiccup shook his head as he stared at the new message. He didn’t respond the previous one.

_Yeah, yeah. Btw. I met Heather._

_Heather who? :o_

_Heather as you know, Dagur’s sister?_

_Oh that one =D she was at the party?_

_Yeah. Jack introduced her to me. And you know what she said?_

_I definitely don’t know.  Free me from this miserable place of unawareness =D_

Hiccup rolled his eyes.

_She said that Dagur was talking with her about me. But not in the mean way, but… like in the nice way? I don’t know, that was weird D:_

_Yeah weird ):_

Indeed it was odd. Hiccup didn’t really expect Heather to know about him. He was just a small nerd, usually hidden in the corner with Astrid. And Heather was… beautiful, popular and smart. But about what exactly was Dagur talking with her? It didn’t look like she knew what her brother was doing. Hiccup was only a little bit curious about this.

Sighing heavily, he looked around the still dirty desk. He needed to clean this, probably fast if he didn’t want to scrape the surface later.

Toothless only looked at him with content purr while laying on Hiccup’s bed.

* * *

Jack sighed for the probably eight time in the last fifteen minutes. But why can’t he not when he was tired, it was Monday and they had English (one of the most boring lessons for him). The teacher glanced at him, but ignored nevertheless for which Jack was very thankful. He had quite good grades from English, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

“Frost, can’t you just shut your mouth for at least five seconds? I’m trying to listen.” Aster whispered angrily to him, but he didn’t lift his head from his notebook.

“But I’m bored.” Jack whined, laying his head on the small nest he made from his arms.

“Then send a message to someone.”

“But I don’t know with whom I want to talk.”

Aster groaned and didn’t reply. Jack expected it a little.

Jack tried to listen for few more minutes, hoping it would somehow magically gain his attention till the end of the classes, but it was no use. He looked at his knees, where his phone still laid down. He brushed his finger on the surface and stared as colors return to the screen. The happy faces of him, Tooth and Aster stared back at Jack. It was a photo they had taken when they were on small vacation last summer near the sea. Jack was totally against spending time anywhere under the bright Sun, especially the beach, but in the end he had a great time with both his friends.

Jack opened the contact list and rolled through it, searching for some name that would make him want to write and talk, but no one really caught his attention. Well, one person did. Dagur’s number. Why he had it was a mystery. He probably just took it out of habit from some person, because you don’t know when you’re going to need some numbers, right? Right. Even though writing to Dagur of all people now sounded hilarious. What could he even write? _Hey Dagur, it’s Jack. I know you think I’m dating your crush, but I’m bored, so maybe talk with me._ No matter how funny it’s sounded, this was still a terrible idea, not to mention a little bit mean. Maybe Dagur wasn’t the nicest person on the Earth, but it didn’t mean that Jack needed to follow his rules. Although it made him chuckle.

Aster glanced at him with raised eyebrow, but quickly brushed it off.

Because this was what Hiccup was to Dagur, right? A crush. However it sounded odd. Crushes reminded Jack of people sighing secretively while staring at someone. Aster was Hiccup’s crush and it sounded good thinking about it. But Dagur and Hiccup? Not so much. But it was probably what it was. Well, at least Jack couldn’t find much more fitting word for this.

Jack leaned on his chair and stared at the lamp. He wondered what would life looked like if Dagur wouldn’t act like… that. Like if he acted a little bit more… normal and not so aggressive? Maybe he would also be glancing at Hiccup while hiding behind the corner and sighing oh-so-girly when Hiccup would pass him by?

Jack puffed his cheek, trying really hard not to burst here laughing. No, this was over, he shouldn’t be allowed to be bored at lessons. He should be even banned from this, because his mind started to think about bizarre things.

Jack quickly grabbed his phone, searched for Hiccup’s number and opened the tab.

_I just imagined Dagur sighing after you while you pass him by in the corridor. =D Like you know… in those romance anime with all those small hearts flying around!_

He didn’t even have to wait a minute before Hiccup replied.

_Hilarious =P. Don’t you have better things to do?_

Jack really… didn’t.

* * *

Hiccup put his hand on the handle, pushed it down and walked inside the stationery shop. The bell above his head ringed loudly, announcing the new, potential client. A woman standing near a cash register lifted her head and welcomed him with a happy, yet tired smile.

Hiccup greeted her too, although more quietly. After that he hung his head and moved to the isle he knew very well, so he didn’t really have to watch where he was going. However he had to lift his face few times to not bump into other people. After he had make quite few pirouettes (because he always noticed someone too late), he was standing in front of the correct shelf. The pads were at the bottom shelf, so he had to kneel. He did exactly that. His eyes looked at the covers of some of the pads, but all of them had colored pages. Well, they had tough sheets, but Hiccup didn’t want to show his Professor project drawn on a yellow page.

In the corner of his eyes he saw a familiar cover, but it was pushed to the very back of the shelf. With a loud huff, Hiccup reached his hand inside, trying to grasp even the corner of the block. He felt the smooth surface beneath his finger prints. He put out his tongue and moved closer. Now he was fully under the shelf. With a small tug he nearly grasped the pad between his pointing finger and thumb.

“Almost got it…”

“Got what?”

Hiccup yelped not so gracefully hearing the familiar voice. He tried to lift his head up, but he hit the upper shelf in that process, so the sudden yelp was followed by a small hiss of pain.

Why, oh, why he always had to do it?

“You alright?” Came the soft, yet a little amused question.

Hiccup cursed his luck as he moved from under the shelf, while massaging his aching head. He didn’t hit himself very hard, but it wasn’t welcomed nevertheless. Especially now.

“I’ll live. No need to call ambulance.” Hiccup murmured, cracking his one eye open.

There was a hand in front of him now. He stared at it for far too long definitely, before it was finally recognized in his mind and catalogued as hand that wanted to help him stand up. He caught it very quickly. His savior hoisted him up to his feet. With his wrist, Hiccup corrected his glasses and looked at the male in front of him.

He knew it was Aster, of course he recognized his voice, but still Hiccup hoped that he had guessed wrong. But, he didn’t. Hiccup’s wonky-embarrassed mode - activate.

“Good, I never called an ambulance and I like my record so far.” Aster said, sending him an amused smile. And of course it was suddenly so hard to stand properly, without swaying from side to side.

His mouth was dry, but somehow he was able to force the voice to cut through his throat.

“I wouldn’t want to go to hospital just because I hit my head on the shop’s shelf so we’re even.” Okay, he needs to take a breath. His body needs oxygen to not suddenly faint. “By the way, thanks.”

“No problem.” Aster, put his hands in his pockets. “I guess you were searching for Cartridge pads, right?” Hiccup nodded, nibbling on his bottom lip. “They moved them to the back of the shop last month.”

Oh, that would actually explain a lot as Hiccup didn’t visit this place for like three months. He packed himself with supplies back then quite good, so he didn’t have to do it for a long period of time.

“Oh, okay. Thanks.”

“I’ll show you.”

Oh gosh… oh, gosh. Odin, Thor, Einstein, Edison, great Gauss* – help him!  Was this really happening? Someone needs to pinch him on the arm, pretty quickly, because he must be dreaming. But please, don’t wake him up!

Aster moved and Hiccup had to make a jump to fall into steps with him. But they were walking, together, side by side. Hiccup never thought that this day would happen.

Okay, but he needs to talk. They can’t live in this silence. His brain was working on top speed, so it had to come up with some idea for a conversation. He just needs to direct the energy on the right tracks.

“So how are you feeling after Saturday party?” Hiccup asked, his voice wavering a little.

“Well my wallet is almost empty as I said earlier. I had to drive half of the people there home and tank my car, because of that, so yeah, could be better. How about you?”

“Sore from sleeping on the bathroom floor.” Hiccup stared at his feet. Left, right, left, right, bend the knees. Move forward. Don’t trip. Ugh, why was it suddenly so hard? Okay, Hiccup got it!

“Ah yeah, Jack told me about it. And about this poisoning thing. Harsh night, right?”

It was literally hell and Hiccup knew he won’t be able to forget it for some darn long time.

“Yeah, never thought I would hold girls hair over a toilet. Life just keeps surprising me.”

And Aster chuckled. His arms shook and the pencils that he was holding under his arm almost slipped away and crashed down. He gladly corrected the hold on them with his other hand.

Nevertheless Hiccup felt accomplished. He managed to make Aster laugh. This was a very good day.

“Well, this isn’t something many guys did in their life.”

“So I’m guessing you didn’t do it?”

Aster shook his head. He suddenly stopped walking and pointed at something.

Hiccup turned and stared at the shelf filled with pads, drafting papers and tracing and carbon sheets.

“Here you go. And about your question, no I didn’t have the honor of doing such memorable thing.”

Hiccup looked at the covers of some pads and searched for his favourite one. He found five pads hidden under other A3 blocks. He stared at them, thinking deeply, then decided to take two of them. Never know when you need additional one, right?

“Yeah, very memorable, although I would exchange it for some happier experience.” Hiccup put two pads under his arm. He straightened his body and turned to his companion. “Driving drunk people seem more fun.”

“If they are buckled up, seated properly and act like a civilized people then yeah, sometimes it’s amusing.” Aster sighed and massaged him forehead, like thinking about it also brought some unwanted memories. The small smirk told Hiccup that there was an element of amusement in it. “But when they suddenly want to throw up in your car, or want to drive to the Park to make a bouquet from fallen leaves for their dog’s birthday this is when it isn’t fun.”

Hiccup covered his mouth, trying hard to not snort suddenly.

“I don’t know. The last story seems amusing for me.”

“It was, until she decided to undo her seatbelts while I was driving. But everything went fine, I somehow managed to convince her that her dog would prefer something else for his… or her birthday.”

This time Hiccup really chuckled, feeling the tension flowing away. This wasn’t so… hard actually. They just needed to talk about something, even minor topics and everything would be okay. Not to mention it looked like Aster sometimes prolonged their conversation. Although this weird feeling inside his stomach could subside. What people called it? Butterflies? Scientifically impossible, but it really felt like that.

“So do you need something else? I need to grab few beads for Tooth.”

“Oh.” Hiccup quickly took out his phone and opened notes, where he wrote down the small list of needed things. He saw that he got new message from Jack. He could wait for few minutes, right? (Jack would understand it). “I need some French curves, pencils, kneaded rubber and… masking tape.”

“Big shopping I see.”

They both turned into a very colorful isle filled with sparkling beads. Hiccup rarely was there, because he never needed any of that thing. Yet it looked like Aster knew exactly what to take, as he looked quickly over the shelves and grabbed few packages, checking the brands name first.

“I just ran out of everything.” Hiccup stated, shrugging slowly.

“Well, I’m an errand boy for my friends.”

“Someone needs to be.”

Aster rolled his eyes, but he was still wearing a small smile.

“But why me? Even Jack asked me if I can pick something for him even though I knew he wasn’t doing anything today.”

Hiccup mulled it over in his head.

“Because you have a car?” He finally said, looking at the taller boy.

Aster opened his mouth, like he wanted to add something, but then quickly shut it. Hiccup took it as a small win for himself.

“You win this round.” The gray haired teen finally uttered, staring at him from half-closed eyes. The ghost of a smile told Hiccup that he wasn’t mad, maybe a little entertained. “So what about you? Do you have a driving license?”

They stopped and Hiccup took French curves. He stared at them for few second from different sides, but then nodded to himself. This package lacked one of the smaller ones, but it wasn’t expensive and Hiccup had few tiny ones hidden somewhere in his desk.

“No, I don’t have. Nor I want to.” He said, glancing at Aster. He was staring at Hiccup expectantly.

Talking was great, but Hiccup wanted for his blush to fly away. And his heart could slow down a little bit. Not to mention his stomach could untwist, but overall it wasn’t so bad. His brain was working properly, he wasn’t stuttering so much and he didn’t even trip, so… yeah, it could be worse. Yet Hiccup hoped that Aster really didn’t see his red cheeks. Or if he did he took it for natural reaction of Hiccup’s organism after walking inside warm shop from the freezing outsides.

“What? Bad memories?” Aster nudged his arm playfully.

Ohmygosh, did this really happened? Did Aster seriously just do that? Hiccup was in a bliss!

“Kind of? I mean, my Dad tried to teach me and we almost crashed in a tree, so yeah, I decided to wait with it.” Probably wait for all eternity. “How about you, did you have similar problems?”

Aster hummed as he looked up on the fluorescent lamps above their heads.

“I remember that on my first lesson I turned over all cones on the curve*” Then he  chuckled. “You should have seen Jack’s face when he was driving with me for the first time. His nails were dig into the upholstery so hard, that he left nails mark there. There are still there actually”

Hiccup laughed under his nose. That looked like a nice view to remember to lift up his mood at nights. But that reminded him that he never saw Jack driving. Did he have a driving license? Did he have a car? Hiccup saw only one car at Overland’s, but he couldn’t say for sure.

“How about Jack? Does he has a driving license?” Hiccup decided to ask, because who could answer his questions better than Aster, the white haired teen’s best-friend.

“Jack? Of course he has. He is actually a very good driver.” Then Aster scratched the back of his head. “Probably even better than me.”

That was a surprise. Hiccup didn’t know that Jack had license. He took him as a careless person even on the road.

“Really? I have never seen him driving…” He murmured.

‘Have never seen’ sounded odd, because it felt like they knew each other for years, even though in reality it was around… two weeks? Which was very short span of time in Hiccup’s opinion.

“I guess if he would have his own car, he would drive around more often.” Aster stated, stopping near some shelf. He reached for something and then handed it to Hiccup. It was the kneaded rubber.

“North wouldn’t buy him one?”

“He wanted to, some time ago, but Jack refused. He said that he wanted to buy it with his very own money.”

“That is… pretty cool in my opinion.” Hiccup said, grabbing the pencils from the higher shelf on their next small stop.

“He can act maturely sometimes.” Aster stated as they moved to the cash register.

Hiccup smirked under his nose as he took the masking tape standing near the cash.

“Is ‘sometimes’ the key word here?”

Aster sent him a grin - partly evil, partly amused - and Hiccup was glad that he could lean on the counter, because he could fall down right here, right there, under this gaze.

“Definitely.”

Aster waved his hand, allowing Hiccup to be the first, but the smaller teen shook his head. He wasn’t sure if he was able to trust his legs for the next minute. So when the woman behind the counter scanned Aster’s items, he took few deep breaths, trying to collect himself. With a little trembling hands he put his items on the counter and waited for his turn.

The woman stared at him, but quickly scanned his items and put them in a plastic bag. Hiccup paid her and received small amount of change and receipt. Aster waited for him at the end of the counter. They both went out.

They weren’t inside pretty long, but the sun was very near the horizon and the world was covered in dark colors. The street lamps were already lit. Hiccup corrected his scarf, that he loosened up while entering the shop as the cold wind pushed pass them. He wasn’t living very far away, but somehow he wasn’t up for walking. Maybe he should ride a bus there?

Hiccup turned his head to Aster to say some farewell, but he found him already moving to his car. Well, he did expect him to do that, but well… some kind of goodbye would be pretty nice. Guess their small conversation was the end of their meeting here.

He turned on his heels, planning to move to the bus stop, when he was stopped by Aster’s voice.

“Hiccup, where are you going? I will drive you back!”

 _Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?_ Hiccup turned around one more time to stare at Aster. He was looking at him with playful smirk dancing on his lips and keys dangling in one hand.

“R-really?” And here was back the stuttering. He could almost blame the freezing temperature outside. “I don’t want to be a burden to you.”

The grey haired boy only tapped the roof of his green car.

“Hop on. I’m going in your house direction anyway.”

Hiccup didn’t need any more incentive, as he walked quickly to the front door, opened them and almost threw himself in. He fastened his seatbelts quickly. His plastic bag laid securely between his legs on the floor.

Okay, this was it. He was in a car, alone with his crush. If this wasn’t the best thing that happened in his life, then Hiccup didn’t know what could beat it. Well, winning the competition last month could fight with it for the first place.

Aster turned on the engine, just in time for Hiccup’s pocket to suddenly vibrate. It was probably Jack’s another message. He should answer him. With a small, delightful smile he took out the phone from his pocket and brushed the screen. Jack’s two messages popped out immediately.

_You didn’t play Amnesia*!? You totally have to play =D!_

Hiccup snorted under his nose, reading the first message.

_How about Outlast*? xP_

Hiccup rolled his eyes. Of course he knew both of those title, but he never had played them. PC or console games weren’t his thing. He was very bad at acting fast, not to mention he could get easily scared, but he enjoyed watching other people play.

_No, didn’t play. I’m bad at games D:_

“I’m taking a lucky shot and say that it is Jack you’re talking with?” Aster suddenly asked when he stopped at the red light.

“You scored.” Hiccup said and sent the message. He pocketed his phone. “He is budging me all day…” Well this wasn’t the truth. Jack wasn’t budging him at all. He was writing to him full day, but it wasn’t very irritating. Hiccup could almost say he enjoyed it.

“Oh, so you were the poor victim.” Aster smiled to himself, not lifting his eyes from the road. It was even better this way. Hiccup liked to be home whole.

“I’m always at the end of a lucky chain, so I’m used to it.” His phone vibrated one more time and Hiccup took out his phone.

_You can’t be worse than Tooth. Come on, just try! They are pretty darn cool =D_

Hiccup scoffed playfully while rolling his eyes. He turned his phone and tapped the response quickly.

_I doubt it. You just want to see me getting scared, I know your mischievous plan, you won’t fool me .___._

“Do you mind waiting here for five minutes? I need to grab something for Jack.”

Hiccup snapped his head up from his phone and with a little pink cheeks nodded quickly. Aster turned off the engine, went out and closed the door. The key were left in the ignition. Was it a good movement from his side? Hiccup can’t fight potential thieves. Now he could only hope no one will be interested too much in Aster’s car.

He followed the driver from his seat to find Aster disappearing inside… a florist? Wait, what? What did he just say now? That he needed to grab something for Jack. What Jack could possibly need from the florist? It was a December, so there wasn’t much flowers in front of Overland’s house, but thinking about it right now… Hiccup couldn’t remember actually the front yard of Jack’s house. He didn’t really see the back one though, only half of it through Jack’s window.

Hiccup stared as the taller teen disappeared behind the golden letters glued to the window. He moved instantly to the counter.

Hiccup slumped down on the seat, so now only his hair were probably visible for the people passing him by. He wasn’t sure what to think about today. Aster knew what was happening between him and Jack, so he definitely wasn’t nice to Hiccup only because he was Jack’s boyfriend (because he wasn’t). Was he so nice to other people too? Probably yes. This idea was sweet and painful both in the same time. Sweet because it was so amazing to feel this kindness, this pure warmness of other people helping each other. And painful because it wasn’t something special. And Hiccup understood it, that it shouldn’t. Helping people should be something normal, but he couldn’t help feeling that prickling sting inside his heart. Because he wanted it to be something special. That Aster did something special for Hiccup. Did it make him a bad person by thinking like that?

Crushes were illogical. Love was illogical. It was just a norepinephrine* being produced in his body, but why it was so hard to cope with it…

Hiccup sighed as he brushed the screen of his phone. Jack wrote him another message. For a second or two Hiccup felt an urge to tell Jack that he was currently in Aster’s car and didn’t know what to do, but he quickly brushed this idea away. What good could give him speaking about it?

_Maybe… What, you’re afraid that Big Brother will see you?~_

Hiccup read it once. Then read it twice and thrice. His fingers quickly formed a response.

_Was it a reference to 1984*?_

And he hit send.

“Sorry it took so long…”

Hiccup looked at Aster, just in time to see him throwing some bags at the back seat. It looked like they were pretty heavy as they landed with a loud thumping sound.

“No problem.” He stated, eyeing the bags with curiosity. Who could blame him? Not to mention he and Jack were technically dating and they both decided it would be good to know each other better in case someone would want to ask or talk about it. “May I know what Jack needed or is it a secret?”

Aster turned the keys.

“Even if this was a secret, it isn’t now.” He glanced at him with a playful smirk. “He just wanted for me to grab some flower fertilizer, so his flowers will live through the winter… But please don’t ask me about details!”

Hiccup didn’t plan to. He actually didn’t know a lot about gardening or plants in general. It wasn’t that he didn’t like them. He actually really loved flowers, but somehow they didn’t like him back. So the only thing he was able to maintain living under his wings were cactuses and succulents. He didn’t really mind, as he had a small collection of them on his windowsill.

But Jack? Hiccup didn’t expect even in a tiniest bit for the popular boy to be interested in flowers or gardening. It didn’t look like it was some deep secret or some mystery at all, but he never even heard the word ‘flower’ or ‘plant’ in the same sentence with ‘Jack’ around the school, so he could only guess that Jack didn’t talk too much about it. Why? Was he ashamed of it?

“So Jack is a mysterious florist…”

“Yop.” Aster popped the last letter loudly. “You should see their backyard in the spring and summer.” He turned on the blinkers and glanced at Hiccup. “Bet you didn’t expect that.”

The smaller teen’s phone vibrated one more time. He took it out.

“Of course, I didn’t.” He said, smiling a little as he opened the tab to respond to Jack.

_To what? D:_

Oh, so he didn’t read it. Hiccup got worked up for nothing. Well, while being at Jack’s house he only saw some fantasy books. But if maybe he would play his cards right then…

“Don’t worry, mate. No one expects it.”

Hiccup hummed, not really paying attention to what Aster just said. He more like heard him speaking something, but the words didn’t get processed too well by his brain.

_It’s a novel written by Orwell. The name Big Brother comes from it. You need to read it, it’s very good._

Devastating, added his mind, but Hiccup preferred to leave it for himself. At least for now on.

“I wonder how many secrets does Jack has under his sleeve…” Hiccup murmured, more to himself than actually to prolong the topic. It wasn’t even supposed to come out from his mouth, but there was some short circuit on connectors in his head.

_‘I didn’t want… to mess another thing up…’_

Hiccup blinked and looked up when he heard the sound one more time. He stared around. His eyes landed on Aster. He was weirdly leaning on the steering wheel and looking at the road with his eyebrows furrowed and nibbling on his bottom lip.

What happened? Why was his brain reminding him of it? Why was he thinking about this one sentence over and over again? Wasn’t it a drowsy person talk? Or not? Now Hiccup wasn’t so sure.

“You never know what card he might pull out…” Aster chuckled, but his voice was vivid and just… empty? The loosen up, kind of happy, teasing atmosphere disappeared, replaced by something different – more thick and heavy. Hiccup didn’t like it.

Should he ask about it? This one sentence was bugging him a lot recently and Hiccup was mad, because he couldn’t find the reason why. It just… didn’t add, like something was missing, some important piece. Was he keen on finding this? This one piece, this hidden x?

“Hey…” He took a deep breath, feeling the seatbelts tightening around his chest for a second or two. His eyes landed on his phone in his hands, but the screen was black. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, go on.” Aster turned on his blinkers. He wasn’t looking at him when he was turning left.

Okay, Hiccup got it. He was bad at explaining those personal emotions, but now there was no turning back. Just keep calm and don’t lose your focus.

“So at the party…” He played with his phone, circling it around in his palm. “When we were in the bathroom and Jack was slowly falling asleep, he mumbled something…” No, this wasn’t all. ”I mean many drowsy or sleepy people mumble something, so at first I took it as that. A sleep talk. But somehow…” Okay, now he was rambling. He needed to think coherent and properly. ”It seems that I can’t forget about it… so I decided to ask about it…”

Aster looked like he wanted to look at him, but couldn’t as he had to focus on the street, so he only glanced at him few times.

“So, what did Jack say?”

Hiccup brushed the fringe away. His phone now laid on his knee, still as blank as a minute or two ago.

“He said that he didn’t want to mess another thing up…” Hiccup whispered. He wasn’t sure why his voice was so quiet, like suddenly they were sharing a secret. And maybe in some weird, twisted way it was a secret. Some small communicate which was broadcasted on known only to few people’s waves. Was Hiccup one of those people? “And somehow I can’t understand why he has said that… I mean I know that no one life is perfect. I totally understand that. People have problems that I can’t even imagine. I know that!” His hands became sweaty, so he brushed them on his trousers. His phone almost fell down. “But I think that he is talented in many things, so it’s not like he is a weakling. He is always smiling and he always help people and he is overall a very good person.” Unlike me, Hiccup added in his mind. “And I simply don’t understand why he is thinking about himself like that, when he has so many advantages.” This literally made no sense. Hiccup facepalmed himself, hitting his forehead with his glasses in this process. It kind of hurt a little. “Does this make any sense to you?”

Aster was smiling softly, but it wasn’t the teasing smirk nor a totally full, one hundred percent happy beam. It was a small, soft movement of understatement.

“More over… Or at least I think I got it.” He said.

Hiccup lifted his hands, but quickly moved them down.

“It’s just… I feel lost. And I don’t know if I’m not overstepping something. Some private border. I mean… I don’t even know if we are friends right now…” Somehow Hiccup felt like he got more questions than answers.

Aster sighed and stopped his car.

Hiccup lifted himself from the slumped down position he had moved himself into. He noticed that they were already in front of his house. The windows were darkened, so it meant that his father still wasn’t back.

He put his hand on the seatbelt lock to untie himself, when Aster spoke:

“I’m probably not in place to talk about such things.” His voice was very low. “But as you said, everyone has problems. And even though Jack act like the happiest person in the world, he lived through some… worse moments. Even though they were in the past, they sometimes return to him.” Aster brushed his hair, leaning on his seat with a heavy sigh.

Hiccup looked at him, opened his mouth to add something, but quickly closed it when he found that actually he had nothing more to add. He felt that he was balancing on something and knew that he shouldn’t overstep it. It was Jack’s private territory.

It wasn’t the curiosity that bothered him, because Hiccup wasn’t interested in other people stories. Because it was what it really was – a history – to some it was something pleasant to remember and to some not. Hiccup didn’t like sharing his past, so he understood that other people might not like it too. So he wasn’t curious. He was simply worried.

Yep, he was worrying over Jack. The truth was simple as that.

Hiccup nibbled on his bottom lip as he put his hand on the handlebar and opened the door. Grabbing the plastic bag from the floor and phone from his knees, he stood up and exited the car.

“Thanks for the lift.” Hiccup leaned in the car. He even tried to smile. He didn’t quite make it, as his lips only twitched a little. “And sorry for asking… I probably shouldn’t do that.”

Aster looked at him with wide eyes, like Hiccup’s words surprised him. He slowly blinked and put his hands on the steering wheel.

“You shouldn’t apologize. It was actually pretty nice of you to ask about this… Not many people care as much as you do.”

“Being a worrywart is Jack’s job.” Hiccup said, brushing one lock of auburn hair behind his ear.

“Well, no one can beat his level at this point, but I think you can try.” Aster said, tilting his head to the side.

“No thank you, I like my position as school’s biggest nerd.”

Aster chuckled one more time. His hand moved to the ignition, where still laid his keys.

“See you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

Hiccup closed the door (trying to use not as much force as he usually do, to not make any harm to Aster’s car) and turned around on his heels. He more like heard Aster driving away, than actually had seen it. But when he opened the door to his house and stopped in the doorway, he was able to glance back. Aster was turning around the corner. In a second he disappeared from Hiccup’s sight, leaving him with weirdly empty feeling resonating inside of him.

He sighed as he stepped inside his house. His hand vibrated, signaling new message. Hiccup opened it while taking off his shoes and jacket.

_Okay, so let’s do it this way. I will read your book with weirdly boring title and you will play Outlast with me. Deal? ; D_

He rolled his eyes, but the smile tugged the corners of his lips upwards.

_Deal._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yahoo! Here is the new chapter where literally nothing happens. I kind of like it… I mean, maybe it would sound weird, but the hangover scene was so fun to write =DDDD!
> 
> Answers =D:  
> Vala411 - I'm sorry, but the first thing I thought was 'nothing'... because, seriously nothing happens in this chapter. I still hope you enjoyed it =DDDD!  
> Turquesa - Thaaaaanks =D! I don't plan to as it's giving me a lot of fun to write :3!  
> Blitz_lili - Yeah, this one is a little bit shorter xD. We are slowly moving to the part of Dagur's character development (spoilert alert to the next chapter haha xD). I'm so excited to write it!  
> Max Fltchr - Ohmygosh I'll try XD! Thank youuu :3!!  
> Perspicacious-opinions - OMG it's so nice to hear, especially when I think my stories are plain boring! D: I hope you like this one chapter too!! =D Thank you!
> 
> Anyway, here are some nerd facts:  
> * Magnesium hydroxide – an inorganic compound, often known as milk of magnesia, because of its milk-like appearance as a suspension.  
> * Silica plate – used in TLC (thin-layer chromatography). You put the sample at one end of plate, put the silica plate inside the glass beaker with eluent and wait, so the sample can extend on the plate. You can see the finished product on the internet =D.  
> * ‘The source of the biggest mistakes is the person who is doing the experiment’ – This is something we were thought on Analytical Chemistry and I decided to put it here, because well… it is right.  
> * Marshall – The male version of Marceline from Adventure Time.  
> * Iron(III) thiocyanate – it is compound that’s looks like a blood. It is often used as a fake blood, although I wouldn’t recommend to do it, because cyanates are poisonous.  
> * ‘The loneliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do.’ – This is something I found on the internet, wrote by Anonymous and I totally agree with that.  
> * Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss - was a German mathematician who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, astronomy, matrix theory, and optics. So as you can see he did many things, me and my friends were often surprised that we found his name related to different subjects.  
> * Cones on the curve – Okay, so this is something we do in Poland while learning to drive. You need to drive forward on the curve, park the car and then drive back on reverse gear. In this time you can’t touch the cones nor cross the lines.  
> * Amnesia, Outlast – One of the best horror games. Seriously, play them or watch them. One is from Frictional Games and the second from Red Barrels  
> * Norepinephrine – as is clear from its other name Noradrenaline, stimulates the production of adrenaline, which makes our heart race, and the palms sweat. Phenylethylamine, norepinephrine and dopamine together are the cause of first attraction and falling in love.  
> * 1984 – Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel written by English author George Orwell. I will put here some titles that I think are worth reading and… if you didn’t read 1981 then seriously, go to the library and read it. Or even better go to the bookstore and buy it. Not to mention you will catch very important references, plus it is really good book. It left me devastated after reading it and from I know, it also did it to my friends. Just read it.  
> Uff, for now that’s all!
> 
> And some small comment on plot from me:  
> *Hiccup being curious if Jack and he are friends – Hiccup likes to know where he stands. He doesn’t have many friends and doesn’t have an urge to gain more, but he is feeling that Jack is something more than a simple dude that is helping him – his ground isn’t as steady as it used to, so he wants to know it.  
> *Drinking – Okay, I hope that no one have problems with them not being adults and drinking. I’m not sure if I know a person who didn’t drink before 18 (in Poland the age limit is 18 not 21), so I kind of don’t have problem with it, that is if they don’t get wasted.  
> *Messages – It is easier for Hiccup to talk via messages, so he is more talkative on them. Hiccup is just bad at talking face to face. Jack, on the other side, prefers to talk while looking at someone.  
> *Hiccup’s embarrassing story – so okay, now I just wrote this part only for laughs. But at first I did plan for Hiccup to accidentally give Jack a boner xD. Actually I started to write this fic with this one scene in mind, but when I got there I thought that it just… don’t add with the rest of the story and Hiccup’s characters, so I deleted it, leaving only small part of it :3.
> 
> Anyway, thank you so much for reading! See ya!


	5. Newton's law of universal gravitation

**Newton's law of universal gravitation** \- a particle attracts every other particle in the universe using a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

 

He never thought his brain would do that. It is something every person does automatically, without thinking too much about it. But for few minutes, Jack swore that his brain just forgot how to breathe.

He tapped his feet nervously on the ground as his eyes observed the silhouette walking slowly, terribly slowly towards their desk. The sounds of his footsteps ringed in Jack’s ears. It made his stomach twist and curl. This was a torture - just slay him right here right there, free him from this pain. Every cell in his body screamed in agony. He should have said proper goodbyes to his sister and dad. Would he see them once again?

Jack didn’t know he could get so nervous over tests’ results. But it was the truth. He barely slept that night. His mind decided that staring at the ceiling was more proficient for his body than sleeping for few hours (even if he had to strongly disagree, but couldn’t really do much about it). And now the effects were devastating.

Jack nibbled on his knuckles nervously. He had to quickly stop it when Aster next to him swatted his hand away from his mouth. When Jack glared at him, his friend only nodded at something with his head.

Jack turned around and froze. Like literally. Professor Black must have been some kind of black wizard, managing to turn students into stone with just one glance of his mighty, cold eyes. “Mister Overland…” Professor said slowly, like he wanted to gain Jack’s attention. Which he often had to do, but not now. Now Jack was fully focused on the man in front of him. Or more on the stack of papers in his hands. Some of the students already received their graded test. Jack actually had seen some of them trying not to cry openly. This image didn’t really help him soothe his wrecked body and mind.

“Y-yes?” Jack swallowed the barely produced saliva in his mouth. His hands were clasped onto his trousers, but they were shaking. He felt like puking. This was terrible.

The male looked down at the tests in his hands and grabbed the corner of one between his thumb and pointing finger. He slowly lifted it up, eyeing the mark. Then – it felt like ages – he put it down in front of Jack.

Now he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to see it. On the second though… Professor Black could take it back and never show him. No, wait! Hiccup told him that he wanted to know the results. But he was scared. Shit… Jack still stared at the teacher too afraid to look down.

And then – seriously, it really happened, Jack wasn’t imagining this – the corners of Professor Black’s mouth twitched upwards.

“Congratulation, mister Overland.” He said and walked to the next desk.

With a wild heart rummaging in his chest (it was beating so fast and loud that it was almost hurting him), he slowly looked down.

And there was his test, covered in red lines, small comments, circles and ticks.

Above it all was the grade – his grade. Jack felt that he could faint when his eyes finally landed on the note at the beginning of the test. He bit his lip and looked at the grade.

It was… B+.

Ohmygosh…Ohmygosh… He was hyperventilating. Someone help him soon. “Everything alright?” Tooth, sitting in front of them, turned around on her chair, staring at him worriedly.

“It looks like Jack blew some fuse.” Aster whispered, leaning to his friend.

Jack actually may have done that, because – shit! – This… this really happened. He got B+. Not C, not normal B, but actual B with a red plus written right next to it. He could die in peace right now. He could suddenly jump and yell and shout and hug and kiss and cry and… Oh fuck, he was almost crying.

“What did you get Jack?” Tooth stood up a little, trying to glance at his sheet. “I… I…” He tried to speak, but every attempt came out asan unfinished stutter. Not to mention his trembling body quite complicated his ability to speak coherently.

Aster groaned loudly and literally teared the sheet out from his hands. Good that Jack loosened up grip on it, because it would be in two pieces by now. The paper landed gracefully between Tooth and Aster.

There was silence when both his friend stared at the test. Then Tooth yelled out first.

“Jack, you did it!” Her happy, maybe too cheerful voice echoed in the room, gathering the attention of definitely some students and unfortunately Professor Black, who Jack assumed may have glared at her to quiet her down. She then clasped both her hands over her mouth.

Aster was not saying anything for a pretty long time. He was only staring at Jack’s paper with this really… really dumbfounded look.

When Professor Black moved to the desks far away from them, the rainbow haired girl finally moved her hands away and put them down on Jack’s and Aster’s desk. Her bracelets made a clinging sound when they touched the surface.

“I’m so proud of you!” She was now whispering with this delightful beaming on her lips.

Jack still couldn’t believe it himself. This had to be a dream! Wait, no, he didn’t want for it to be a dream.

His mouth was stretched in one of the biggest smile of the week… or maybe even a month? Half a year? Jack couldn’t remember the last time he felt so accomplished. His body, that until then was rigid as a rock, loosened up, to this point he was almost slumped on the chair. His back muscles ached a little from being taunted all morning.

He needs some bath, warm bath to help him get rid of this tightness…

“H-how about you?” Jack finally was able to find his voice, stuck somewhere between excitement and surprise. Gosh, his heart was still hammering in his chest. “What did you get?”

Tooth turned around and grabbed her own test. The bright, red as Cardinals* C+ was standing proudly at the top.

“Well, it’s not the best, but I’m still pleased with the results.” She said enthusiastically.

Jack was opening his mouth one more time to add something, but he stopped when he felt a shadow creeping to their desk from the other side. Professor Black looked at them, shushing them all down with only one glance. Then from the definitely smaller piles he took the sheet on the top and put it in front of Aster.

“Your test, mister Bunnymund.” He stated emotionlessly.

The gray haired male robotically moved Jack’s test away and grabbed his own. Both Tooth and Jack stretched their necks, trying to see the grade on their friend’s paper.

“No need to be so stealthy.” Aster coughed, like he finally was put out of some daze.

“Here, you can see this.” He passed the paper to Jack’s own, still shaking, palms. Jack directed his blue eyes at the grade. His heart almost stopped beating. His breath got tangled in his throat. Because this couldn’t be right. Now, this really had to be a dream. Some vivid dream. Some weird, twisted, wonky dream. Because it couldn’t happen in reality. It simply couldn’t.

“Jack, are you alive?” Tooth waved her hand in front of Jack’s eyes, looking at him worriedly.

And Jack simply burst out.

“I’ve got a better grade than Bunny?!” Now his voice was definitely heard by all of the students, judging by every heads turning suddenly in their direction.

Aster next to him sighed heavily, like he expected the outcome. And maybe he even did.

“Yes, yes you have.” He said looking at him with a half-smile.

Tooth ripped the test with simple B (without the beautiful, magical, amazing, crimson plus next to it) away from Jack’s hand, eyeing it curiously. She then smiled at her friend.

“You did great nevertheless.” The girl praised him.

“I know.” Aster said, leaning on his chair and crossing his arms on his chest.

For Aster and Tooth getting good grades was something normal, something that happened maybe not every day but very often, but for Jack it was totally new. He often got grades that allowed him to pass that or this test or year, but rarely so high… and rarely so high from Math.

Seriously, this was amazing, astonishing, even incredible! He felt like he could just stand up from the chair and almost hug the Professor, but knew better not to do that (although Jack wanted to know what kind of face the man would do). His mouth now hurt from smiling so bright, so wide, however he couldn’t stop himself from doing so. He felt like nothing would destroy this happy, this blissful, this rapturous, this delightful mood. No Heather, no Professor Black, no family problems… Nothing!

He felt accomplished. He had studied for the test a whole bunch, really. He spent hours and hours, doing new exercises, correcting mistakes, trying to understand different examples. Not to mention he didn’t even cheat! He did it all using his own mind. Very own mind! How amazing was that!? And Professor Black even praised him! He could die right there, right then! But he wouldn’t have been able to do all of that if this wasn’t for… Hiccup!

Oh shit, he was supposed to write to him immediately after he would receive the result.

Jack quickly searched his pants for his cellphone. He found it weirdly hanging from his pocket. His eyes searched the grounds for Professor, but he was talking with some boy in the front about his grade. Good, very good. Jack had two to three minutes to write the message. It was enough.

It maybe wouldn’t be so hard if his hand would stop shaking, but they didn’t. Yet somehow he was able to take the phone out, open the message tab and write.

_I DID IT! I DID IT!!! I got B+ =DDDDDDDDDD!! I even beated Bunny!!!_

The white haired teen actually had to correct a few words a few times, because he made some typos, but when he clicked the send button, he leaned on his chair with a blessed gleam on his face.

Aster weirdly moved to Tooth, leaning above her ear.

“I think he may die from this sudden overdose of happiness. Should we do something about this?” He whispered, glancing at him. Aster lacked the ability of whispering without people hearing him.

Tooth shook her head – her earrings swished from side to side. Today she wore a small dream catchers with yellow beads.

“No, let him enjoy himself. He deserves it.”

“I can hear you…” Jack scoffed and although it was supposed to sound a little bit angry, it came out like a happy yip.

“We know you do.” Tooth stuck out her tongue.

Before Jack was able to add something, the phone in his hand vibrated. He quickly directed his eyes down at his palms under the desk. It was a new message from Hiccup.

Jack’s heart was beating very fast. He was kind of nervous… How Hiccup would react to that? How Jack wanted for Hiccup to react to this? Maybe he wanted to read a little praise? Sarcastic comment? A happy emoji?

He clicked the new message icon.

_CONGRATULATIONS! I knew you would do it! =DDDDDDDDD. I’m so proud of you._

Jack wondered if Hiccup was currently grinning while looking at his phone. The white haired teen was definitely doing it. Then he read the last sentence one more time. Then he reread it twice and thrice.

Proud. Hiccup was proud of him. The biggest nerd of the school was proud of him. One of the nicest person he ever met (although the kindest was sprinkled with a maybe not too small dose of sarcasm) was proud of him. Even though half of it (or maybe two thirds, if not three quarters) was Hiccup’s work, he was still proud of him. It kind of made Jack feel amazingly nice.

His fingers quickly danced on the keyboard, writing a reply.

_You did almost all of the work. I only wrote the test D:_

Because this seemed right. It was Hiccup who had prepared exercises, explained to him thoroughly step after step what he should be doing, walked to his house, spent hour after hour correcting Jack’s mistakes (but still without being mean), helped Jack get over his stress. It was a lot of work to do. Jack just simply took it all with only simple ‘thanks’ as a show of gratitude. This wasn’t right.

Professor Black returned to his desk and directed his cunning, dark and piercing eyes at all his students. When he acted like that Jack knew he won’t be able to write freely on his phone. And he didn’t plan getting on Black’s dark side, especially after receiving such good grade. The Professor definitely didn’t have cookies there. So when his phone vibrated, announcing new message, he had to hide it in his pocket.

* * *

When Fishlegs called him in the afternoon on the Skype, Hiccup had no problem with telling everything that happened at the twins’ party. He only hid one thing – Jack mumbling in his sleep, but that something only he and Aster knew about then. Not to mention Aster told him that it was a private matter and Hiccup knew how soft those topics were.

“Yeah, Ruff’s and Tuff’s party are something I definitely don’t miss…” Said the boy on the other line, sniffing a little at the end. “Although they called me and invited me, but you know… six hours of driving to be on a party that I don’t enjoy? No, thank you~.” “Yeah, totally understand you…” Hiccup mumbled, bored, staring at the screen, where Fishlegs was playing a game and was sharing the screen with him. “Not to mention, I don’t think you ever want to see Astrid puking. Seriously, this scared me to death. I thought I would have had a heart attack!”

The boy giggled and then shouted something, when his enemy put some card out. Fishlegs already had few minions in front of his hero, but they were very weak.

Although one had taunt, so this was a small plus on Fishlegs’ side.

“I suppose…” The boy was silent for few minutes. He was looking carefully through his cards. He then placed two in front of himself and started attacking the enemy.

After that he finished his round. “It kind of does not surprise me. I mean, it was bound to happen one day.”

“You’re not helping, Fishlegs…” Hiccup stated as he leaned on his chair. He minimalized the Skype’s tab, too bored of watching Fishlegs’ play. If something would happen then Hiccup would deduce it from the cry of joy or sadness coming from his headphone.

“Hey, it was Astrid who helped you when you got drunk on this one party so you could say that you are even…”

Hiccup bit his bottom lip hard, feeling the blush returning to his cheek. Oh yeah, Astrid also had spent some beautiful moments with him in the toilet, but only on the next day, not at the actual party.

“You make one mistake and everyone reminds you about it.” He mumbled, sweeping through some tabs not really interested in any of them. Maybe he should watch some series? There was a new episode of _Parks and Recreation_. But he wasn’t really in a mood.

“Yeah, because no one expected this from you… By the way, it’s not like everyone reminds you about it, it’s only us.” Fishlegs then yelled happily. Hiccup had to guess his attack was effective against the enemy.

“It makes me feel so better that Ruff and Tuff bring it back every time we meet.” Hiccup sighed. This was going nowhere. He wanted to loosen up, not get angry at himself for something that happened few months ago. It was all water over the dam. He should move forward.

Hiccup brought back Fishlegs’ tab to see him sending a final attack on his minion with charge. The screen burst with fireworks and Fishlegs’ hero swirled in the center of it, showing that he had just leveled up. Hiccup played this game from time to time. He wasn’t very good at games that required skills with keyboard and mousepad so every FPS was out of the question. Survivals were also too difficult. But logic games were okay.

Hiccup actually liked games, but he preferred to watch other people play it. Maybe that was why Fishlegs called him whenever he bought new game.

But his friend never played any horror games. Fantasy and RPG were genres Astrid and Fishlegs played (with Hiccup as an onlooker), but horror? Not so much. Not to mention that Hiccup was a little… just a tini-tiny… a little bit…scared of playing one. He could never even sit till the end of a horror movie with Astrid without hiding behind the quilt or suddenly excusing himself to hide in the toilet. But this was Astrid he was talking (erm, thinking?) about! She knew how he behaved. But Jack… well, Hiccup didn’t know if he wanted to show this part of himself. It was kind of embarrassing. But well, some sacrifices had to be made.

“Hey Hiccup.”

He hummed, leaning his face on his hand and staring at the screen.

“What about Jack’s test? Shouldn’t they get results soon?”

Hiccup quickly straightened up, feeling some weird spark running through his spine (the one he often feltwhen he finds a way to solve some exercise). He moved the chair closer, suddenly remembering that he didn’t answer Jack last message. He was too preoccupied with dinner - who could blame him?

“He passed!” The auburn haired teen chirped. Wasn’t he too loud? Well, his father wasn’t home, so he could be as loud as he could be. “Even with a B+!”

“That’s great!”

It really was. Hiccup felt super happy about it. It wasn’t even that he felt accomplished (he kind of did, but it was only a small percentage of the true feeling). It’s just felt really nice to know that the hard work wasn’t in vain, that they were able to cut through this wall, this barrier that was standing in Jack’s way. Almost like it was an activation energy, and Jack was finally able to overcome it for chemical reaction to happen. Hiccup was just a helpful catalyst. It was Jack who did all the work. Maybe Aster was right. Maybe they really were friends. Hiccup couldn’t explain his happiness any other way. He often got very excited when his friends were able to overcome some difficulty, no matter if this was a test or afear of birds.

“Yeah, it really is.”

“Maybe you should become a teacher? You know, with your experience in learning it wouldn’t be too hard.”

“After tutoring Snotlout? Please, I’m too terrified to have similar students to him.” Hiccup waved his hand, even though he knew Fishlegs couldn’t see him.

“You still didn’t tell my why? I only know that you were always mad after those lessons.”

Hiccup shuddered remembering all of that. Maybe those lessons wouldn’t be so bad if Snotlout wasn’t so stubborn and they wouldn’t start yelling at each other every time they hit some wall. Seriously, those lessons were the most exhausting exercises he ever had. And he thought trying to determining the molecular weight of a substance using cryoscopy method* was difficult.

“No, just… no…” His hands massaged his temples, feeling that he could get a headache any second now, just remembering those times. “Let me forget about that.” Fishlegs giggled and turned on another match.

“When we are on topic of forgetting about something… you asked your father about New Year, right?”

It took some time for clutch in Hiccup’s mind to start working properly, but then he opened his mouth, when he felt it turning softly. The cloves in the racks were in a

synch.

“Oh yeah, I did. Quite some time ago, but forgot to tell you, sorry. He totally agreed.” Hiccup said, feeling the corners of his mouth moving upwards.

The case was that their small group wanted to spend the New Year Eve together. At first Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout whined about not going to some kind of loud club, where they could drink even more alcohol, but Hiccup knew they would stick with them, even if this meant camping at the twins’ house and playing some games. So in relation to this Fishlegs asked if he could stay at Hiccup’s house for three days during their small holiday. His father agreed immediately. It wasn’t very often that Hiccup got guest over their house. Not to mention they hadn’t seen each other since Summer Holidays, and talking on Skype almost every week was great… but not as great as sitting in front of the monitor together and watching or playing something.

“Cool, I can’t wait for it! I haven’t seen you guys in so long!” Fishlegs’ voice dripped with childish happiness. The sound and tone of it reminded Hiccup a little bit of Jack. And – uh oh – he still hadn’t answered his last message.

* * *

Jack sighed heavily, as he finally crossed the doorway to his house. When his friend from Middle School had asked him if he wanted to meet, he couldn’t just say no . Apparently a small meeting for two turned into a small meeting for six. And even though it was pretty cold outside (cold enough outside for a jacket), the small group moved to the court to play some basketball. Jack wasn’t very good at it, but he had an infinite amount of energy in his veins. Not to mention he needed some kind of movement to release the last pollens of tension longing on his muscles from the day’s stress.

So when he finally returned home, it was already evening and he was drenched with sweat. But he had never felt better. Especially when he was returning home with good news.

Emma and North both reacted as Jack expected. Maybe even worse, but worse in the  good way. Emma tried to remain as stoic as possible and only rolled her eyes, scoffing that she knew that this would happen (because _duh!_ Hiccup), but the twitches of her lips told Jack that she was trying hard not to smile at him. Not to mention the small imps of happiness and pride growing in her eyes couldn’t be hidden from the outside world.

North, on the other side, let out a loud shout mixed with a sigh. His cheeks quickly turned red and eyes teared up a little bit, when he hugged Jack so hard he was scared that his ribs would break underneath. The hug lasted long and when Emma rolled her eyes one more time, she was forced to participate.

It was an Overland tradition, anyway. Not that Emma had any other choice.

North hugged them for almost five minutes, until he finally released both of them and they were able to take a proper, yet a little aching in the chest, breath.

North told them he would order some food in small celebration. Had it not been so late, Jack would have grabbed the reins and done some significant dinner..

He walked then to his room, where he decided to wait for the take-out. He threw his sport bag near his bed on which he himself slumped down, face first. His muscles relaxed immediately. His mind even started slowly to drift away and Jack had to try really hard to not fall asleep so soon. His body needed rest, but he wanted to catch up on the laptop with his friends and some cartoons.

With a groan he rolled on his bed and stared at the ceiling, where white snowflakes were glued. He and Emma had made them few years ago, when his sister was forced to stay at home with a smallpox. At first Jack had hung them to please his sister, but then he had decided he liked the result. It gave this room a nice cold feeling even in the summer. Not to mention his nickname - Frost - fitted well with this decoration.

Jack closed his eyes, sighing heavily. He didn’t know that he could be so happy about getting a simple B+. Of course, sometimes he received good grades from other subjects - he even got few A from Geography and English – but this one was on a different level. Almost like he beat some kind of mid-level boss. It tingled his nerves, lulling his body in this dream of accomplishment. But he wouldn’t have done it without Hiccup.

Jack opened his eyes. His one hand travelled to his pants, where he searched for his phone. When he found it, he checked it for new messages. He had two. One from his football teammate and second from Sandy. Not one from Hiccup – and now it was the smaller teen time to reply.

He surprisingly found himself awaiting, maybe even anticipating the message. Talking with his other friends via phone’s messages was okay, but with Hiccup it was slightly different. Jack never knew how Hiccup would respond. It was like a neverending mystery. Not to mention Jack felt that Hiccup was a little more open while writing (or maybe it was only his imagination?). Yet, every message was written in very Hiccupish style. They rarely had any typos, began with a big letter and often finished with a full stop (totally different from Jack’s messy ones). However the emoticons surprised him. He didn’t expect Hiccup to actually use them. He read the remaining two messages, answered them and then left his phone somewhere on his bed.

The white haired teen hadn’t been able to see Hiccup at all today. It wasn’t like there was an urge inside of him to see the boy, but he was interested in his reaction. Would

Hiccup welcome him with a big, toothy grin? Would he pat him on the back? Or maybe he would do a sarcastic remark? Judging by his messages, he was also happy for Jack, but he wanted to see it with his very own eyes.

Did Hiccup feel accomplished too? Was he feeling really, really proud? Did he tell Astrid about it? Did he had those small sparks in his eyes while speaking about it?

Jack was very curious. He could finally take a proper breath and it was all thanks to the small boy.

He should thank him, but there was a giant problem clawing its nails at the back of

Jack’s mind. He didn’t know how to do that? How should he thank him? Words weren’t enough (not to mention he kind of already thanked him), plus Hiccup probably would say that it was enough for him, but Jack didn’t think so. He wanted to show more of his gratitude somehow. But how? Maybe with some kind of present? A book? Jack knew that Hiccup liked reading, but he didn’t know which books he had already read. This one… what it was… Oh! _1984_ \- was out of the question, but maybe he would buy something similar. No… there was a chance Hiccup had read it and Jack wasn’t good at asking questions with hints nor did he plan to ask it straightforward.

But any other present seemed dim. Chocolate box? Just plain, not to mention Hiccup had told him that he didn’t like chocolate too much. He ate some from time to time, but only when he really wanted to. So that was out. Maybe some different candy? A bouquet? Well, that sounded girly, beside Jack is against giving cut flowers. Where was the fun in that? Here, have these dying flowers, so you can stare as they die more slowly and painfully? Nu huh.

Jack groaned and threw his hands in the air. What to do? What to do…

Well, definitely lying down wouldn’t help him, so he sat up. He waited for few minutes for the world to stop spinning and he stood up. He turned his computer on. While he waited for it to open every program, he busied himself with humming.

Asking the internet for his problem seemed dumb. By the way, it wasn’t that he totally  had no idea, he just didn’t think that the ones he thought up were good enough. Jack was a pro in people interaction, but there was some walls that he simply couldn’t destroy. But maybe his friends could help him. He opened the group Aster and Tooth formed quite some time ago on Facebook and asked them about ideas.

Neither of them were online, but it didn’t bug him too much.

The doorbell rang. reminding him that he was actually pretty hungry.

He wanted to get up, but one small green icon caught his interest. Astrid. She was online.

They never ever talked on Facebook. Now Jack wasn’t even sure who sent the friend invitation first, but he had a foggy recollection that it happened a year ago, when the soccer and basketball team shared once a bus when they were both going to the intercity games.

“Jack, food is here!” North shouted. His voice was very audible even if the door to Jack’s room was closed.

“In a minute!” He yelled back. His hand hovered above the mouse.

 _To write, or not to write?_ Astrid was Hiccup’s best friend. She probably knew more about him than Jack did (but what could he expect after knowing someone for only two weeks?). But wouldn’t it seem weird? Maybe a little, but Jack really wanted to do something in return.

“Jack!” This time Emma shouted from the downstairs. She was probably hungry and the Overlands’ started dinner together (or almost always together). “Come on!” Jack rolled his eyes, smiling under his nose. It would serve her right for allowing Jack to hit his knee in the bathroom, when she had told him the wrong time when Hiccup was visiting.

But he was kind of really, terribly hungry too, so he opened the tab and wrote a message.

 _Astrid, I need to ask you something D:_  

* * *

Hiccup yawned, as he stretched his arm above his head. Waking up was never easy for him.

Astrid was walking next to him, humming some tune under her nose. She was in a surprisingly good mood. Her mouth was turned upwards, what rarely happened those days. Even the rain that was pouring on them didn’t dissolve her smile.

Albeit suspicious, Hiccup was more interested in keeping the umbrella above his head and not let it wander around.

“You would think winter means snow here.” The smaller teen said, looking up at the gray sky. The sun was fully hidden behind the heavy, dense clouds. It looked like it wasn’t going to stop raining anytime soon.

“Not before the heavy amount of good ol’ rain here.” Astrid picked up the topic, still smiling to herself. Seriously what put her in so good mood?

Hiccup didn’t really know what to add, so they walked in that weird, comfortable notreally-silence floating around them. For Hiccup it was weird, because Astrid was this neverending reaction – always babbling about something, coming up with new conversations. Of course they sat or spent time in silence, but never for very long and usually at their houses, when they were doing their own respective things. But outside it was totally different thing.

“Okay, Astrid, what is on your mind? You act weird…” Hiccup finally confronted her, when they were close enough to see the school building.

The girl swished her head in his direction and their umbrellas clashed, sending small droplets of water to the ground. Some person behind them sighed heavily. It looked like they wet this someone a little bit by their sudden movement.

“Me? Nothing is on my mind.” She said, but her white teeth were pretty visible, even though she seemed to attempt to hide them. But it was almost impossible not to see the pink color of phenolphthalein in an alkaline environment*, even if you dilute it.

“Anyway I’ve been thinking of watching something in cinema. You know what they’re playing?”

Astrid? Cinema? She wanted to watch a movie? This was all going slowly into one direction. But it was a little bit too early to draw any conclusion. Maybe she really wanted to watch something in cinema?

“I’m not sure…” Hiccup started, not really knowing what to say more. “Anything specific?”

The girl sighed, her free hand brushed away the fringe from her forehead. The person behind them passed them, not glancing in their direction.

“I don’t know. I was only thinking that maybe we should watch something. We haven’t been inside a cinema for like… three years?”

Hiccup was confused a little bit. Why so sudden change of mind?

“That is because you are always pissed at the prices of tickets. Not to mention for half of the movie you complain about too salty popcorn and for the rest about the ce in your coke!”

Astrid chuckled and accidentally stepped into very big puddle that formed overnight. She cursed loudly, which in return made Hiccup snicker at her reaction. “Yeah, I know. I don’t know why, but I want to watch something. So what do you recommend?” Astrid murmured, looking at her now wet shoes.

Hiccup felt that this wasn’t really the truth. He knew Astrid too well, but… He had seen her also devouring a bowl full of caramel popcorn (even though she hated caramel popcorn) once, due to her having period so… yeah. No judging here!

“Well… there is _Gravity_ which I think may be okay… and _Elysium_ which could be cool too. But if you’re really interested then there are also _Now You See_ me or _Prisoners_.” Hiccup slowly started to list the titles from memory. He loved watching movies, so he more or less knew what was currently on the screens.

“I’m not up for thrillers lately. Maybe we should watch something you want?” Astrid asked, looking right at him.

Okay, seriously, now this was bizarre. What game was she playing? Because Hiccup was now one hundred percent sure that Astrid didn’t really want to go to cinema. “Astrid, stop fooling around. What is your problem?” Hiccup questioned her, lifting his eyebrow. They were very close to the school by then.

“Me?” Astrid eyes widened hearing it. “I have no problem. Who is talking about problems anyway!? You must be delusional!”

Hiccup rolled his eyes. He knew Astrid - she definitely was planning something, but he knew he was also unable to make her speak at this very moment. But she would do it, sooner or later, consciously or not. Hiccup only had to push the right buttons, add the right ingredients to have the correct compound for precipitating. So for now, he left that topic.

“Okay, suit yourself.” The auburn haired teen finally said, climbing up the stairs to the school building. As he stood under a small roof, he moved his umbrella away and shook it, trying to not wet anyone in that process.

Astrid moved after him, standing near and shaking her umbrella too. Then they both closed their umbrellas and moved to the front glass door.

* * *

_Okay, so he said something about Gravitation or Gravity actually… and… Elysium I suppose xP? He told me something about Now You See Me, but I think he only mentioned it because of me .___._

Okay, Jack was slowly going somewhere. He could guess that Hiccup was into that kind of movies - like sci-fi or overly complicated ones.

Plan was really simple. He wanted to take Hiccup to the movies as a show of his gratitude. But this wasn’t all, of course not. Jack planned to invite Aster along too. Maybe it would look weird for the people outside, but then he could always explain that the taller teen simply tagged along because he was bored. It wasn’t like he would be a third wheel, because Hiccup and Jack weren’t in a relationship. Or more like Jack would be a third wheel? Kind of. But it was worth it. Hiccup deserved it.

Jack quickly looked the times for those two movies. They were both played close to each other at Saturday afternoon. Perfect. Too perfect. Now he only has to ask them.

Hiccup was actually an easier matter. From what Astrid had told him, Hiccup usually had free weekends, unless someone asked him out to hang out. But neither Astrid nor the twins nor Snotlout planned anything so he should be free.

The problem was Aster, because even though Jack knew more about whether he was doing anything this weekend (for now Aster wasn’t doing much), he couldn’t know whether something wouldn’t crop up. Aster’s father was a vet with his own clinic that was next to his house and because of that they often were opened all day and all night. Aster often helped him there too. It had happened few times in the past – the fact that Aster had to cancel the meeting because he needed to help his father. Jack could only hope that it wouldn’t happen this weekend. Nevertheless he took his phone and wrote a quick message to Aster. He was faster to look at his phone than Facebook or Skype.

_Hey, doing anything on Saturday? =DDD_

Hiccup, on the other side, Jack planned to ask on the next day. They were supposed to act like a pair, so it should be normal to ask your boyfriend out in the corridor, right? This was normal. He actually had done it few times in the past. But this time… it was kind of different. Jack couldn’t point out why.

His phone vibrated, just as he was clicking on another page on the monitor.

_Nope. Have something on your mind?_

Oh, Jack did. He really did.

* * *

He was going to do it. It was the perfect time. Everyone knew that lunch pauses were the best time to ask someone out. Or at least movies and books told him so.

Jack was sitting on the edge of his chair as he stared at the clock above the blackboard. Just four more minutes, maybe not even four full minutes but three minutes and… forty-six seconds! Yes, that seemed right.

There was a weird feeling inside his stomach. It was definitely the excitement he felt whenever he planned something with his friends. But the normal happiness was accompanied by something different. A small stress flooded his stomach. Jack never felt nervous while making plans with Aster, or Tooth, or the rest of his friends, but now it was different. The problem was that he didn’t know why it was different. It almost felt like a small imitation of the first time he asked a girl out on a date, but it was ridiculous. He kind of was asking Hiccup on a date, but they both knew it wasn’t like that. Maybe Jack was just scared of his reaction? That seemed right. Jack couldn’t guess how Hiccup would react. Would he smile? Maybe. Would he sigh very heavily? Totally possible. Maybe he wouldn’t even smile or wouldn’t even hear him, too preoccupied by something different? It could really happen. So that was probably the case. Or at least Jack though so… Never mind, it wasn’t so important.

Astrid had told him the previous dayon Facebook that they both she and Hiccup would be moving to the cafeteria, so Jack had high chances of catching them while doing the same. They were walking from the same direction anyway. He planned to catch them and ask Hiccup for few minutes of private talk and then… bam!

The bell rang above their heads. Jack literally jumped from his seat and unfortunately hit his knee on the desk quite painfully. A few supplies danced on the surface and fell down. Tooth yelped next to him, freaked out by his outburst.

“You okay?” She asked, raising her eyebrow while standing up and packing her things.

“Yeah, totally.” Jack gasped, massaging his hurt knee, while bending and collecting his things. He threw his pencils and rubber inside his bag.

Tooth was already done, waiting for him to finish with a warm, kind smile. They moved to the door, saying goodbyes to the teacher before exiting the classroom.

The corridor was swarmed with people trying to get to the cafeteria to get lunch. The crowd was so dense it was almost impossible to walk at normal pace, so they decided to wait a little bit. Astrid and Hiccup always were the last to walk into the cafeteria anyway.

People were passing them in quite happy moods, even though the world outside was as gray as dirty snow. Jack didn’t really mind it, rain was fine too. It refreshed the air outside, not to mention it meant that he could play outside with Emma in puddles. Funny thing was that it was usually Jack who had to drag his sister out and not the other way around.

When there were clearances in the river of people, they joined the stream. Tooth started talking about some sleepover she was invited to with her friends from Biology club, but Jack listened to her with only one ear. The second one searched for Astrid’s or Hiccup’s voice. It looked like the smaller girl didn’t really mind as she was babbling wildly and excitedly while swinging her hands from side to side.

Jack finally found his goal almost near the entrance. They were now at the end of the stream, because Jack was slowing down their pace. And indeed, Astrid and Hiccup were walking at the end, talking softly to each other.

Jack lifted his hand.

“Astrid, Hiccup, hey!”

The blonde lifted her head pretty quickly, because she expected it. Hiccup was a little bit slower to react. He looked at Jack with slightly widened eyes and hanging open mouth, but then he shrugged and moved closer.

“Hey Jack!” Astrid waved her arms wildly, grinning like a small lion. “And hey Tooth! How are you feeling?”

The rainbow colored girl caught up to the duet and greeted them with a smile.

“Well, now I’m feeling fine. Definitely better than on Saturday. How about you?”

“I’m back alive, as you can see.” Astrid brushed the fringe away from her forehead. She glanced quickly at Jack.

The white haired teen cleared his throat, with one hand put behind his back. Hiccup looked at him.

“Everything’s okay?” He lifted one of his eyebrow. That movement made his glasses slip a little bit down.

“Yes, yes, perfectly fine. Actually I wanted to find you. Do you have a minute?” Jack asked, feeling the corners of his mouth stretching in a grin.

“Umm sure… but…” Hiccup started, to be almost immediately stopped by Astrid jumping onto his arm.

“Don’t worry about us. Tooth and I will wait for you in the cafeteria! Right?” She then turned to the slightly out of place girl.

Nevertheless Tooth nodded. It even looked like she was quite happy to be able to spend some time and chat with the blonde girl. Astrid then  walked to the girl and took her under her arm. She waved back at Jack and Hiccup and they both moved to the opened door of canteen.

Jack waited till they disappeared inside the room. They were left alone in the empty corridor.

Hiccup crossed his arms over his chest. He was smirking at Jack.

“Okay, spill the beans.” His cunning eyes were drilling right into Jack’s own.

“What beans? I’m not hiding anything.” Kind of. But that was beside the point. “And I really need to talk to you. Are you free this Saturday?” He asked, feeling the specks of electricity running through his veins. His one hand maneuvered to the back of his head. Seriously, why was he being so nervous?

“Gee, no I’m playing with my hardcore metal band in my garage.” Hiccup said in a very serious tone. For a second Jack almost believed him, but the sudden roll of the smaller boy’s eyes told him that he’d  guessed right. “I’m not doing anything. Why do you ask?”

They heard steps and not soon after two tenth graders passed them, running to the cafeteria. Maybe a teacher had asked them to stay a little bit after the bell? Totally possible. They glanced at them, but then returned to their journey in mighty need to find not so edible food.

“Because I’m taking you out!”

Hiccup’s eyebrows flew high onto his forehead, as the boy changed weight to his other leg.

“Oookay…” He finally said, weirdly quietly while prolonging the first letter. His voice was pretty skeptical. “Why?”

It was now Jack’s time to roll his eyes. His hand, with the locks at the back of his head until then, moved to his pockets.

“Because duuh, I want to?” He said, tilting his head and gracing his companion with a playful grin. “Do I need a reason to hang out?”

Hiccup was staring at him, as though he were searching  for something in Jack’s posture, some missing x that he really wanted to know. But it seemed like he hadn’t quite managed, as his arms slumped down and he sighed heavily, finally pushing his glasses higher. Defeated – one point on Jack’s side.

“Okay, I’m free.” He finally grumbled, it sounded like it pained him to do so. “So what are we doing exactly?”

Jack was all jittery inside. He felt like someone was blowing bubbles inside his stomach. Very excited bubbles that now floated around his body. He could say it all now. It was so easy, but where was the fun in it? No to mention, he wanted to tease the smaller teen a little still. “It’s a surprise!” Jack said, putting both  hands behind his back and balancing on his heels. “So 3 p.m. is good?”

Hiccup rolled his eyes (one more time, just how many times had he done it today already? Jack wasn’t sure), but nodded then, pushing his backpack higher with a slight shove.

“Okay.”

“Great, meet me in front of the Burgess Plaza?”

Hiccup looked at him skeptically, tilting his head to the side. He looked like a small crow, staring at something interesting yet keeping his distance, not daring to move closer, scanning the ground for a safe step to take.

Yet he didn’t dare to make his move.

“Mhhhmmm sure. Now can we go get food?”

* * *

Hiccup would have lied had he said he wasn’t curious. He moreover knew Jack was taking him to the cinema, because – _hello?_ \- who wouldn’t guess it after Astrid asked him about the movie titles. So that was the easy part. The hard one could be problematic. He was curious as to why Jack was doing it.

Hiccup had some suspicions. Some of them more positive and some of them negative. But the bad ones he quickly brushed away from his mind. Jack was a very nice person, he wouldn’t have askedhim out to stand him up. Not to mention, he looked genuinely happy to hang out with Hiccup - what was admittedly very surprising.

What was even more unforeseen was the fact that Hiccup… wanted to go. He anticipated Saturday - not in the way that’s not allowing you to sleep at night, not in the way that makes you all jittery, not in the way that doesn’t let you eat. He just felt happy while thinking about it.

A few times he had tried to nudge Jack during messages’ conversation to spill his plans, but he always somehow busted Hiccup’s traps. How he had been able able to sense them was beyond Hiccup’s mind comprehension. Slyas a fox.

Now it was Friday afternoon and he was laying on his bed, with his laptop on his lap, watching a new episode of _Supernatural_. Well, the episode was on in the background, Hiccup wasn’t really paying it much attention. He was playing with his phone, circling it and awaiting a reply, in the meantime conversing with Fishlegs and Astrid on Skype. Toothless napped peacefully next to his thigh. Hiccup stroked his head softly.

His phone buzzed.

 _Emma switched off the bathroom light while I was washing my face. I tell you she is evil D:! For a second I though I’d gone blind!_ （ｉДｉ）

Hiccup giggled under his nose as he turned on the reply tab. _Sam_ on the screen said something, but Hiccup’s ears didn’t quite catch what.

_I don’t know what you mean. She is sweet =D._

Hiccup wasn’t good with kids. He must say that he even avoided them. Whenever some small child approached him, he got very stiff. Astrid told him that it would disappear with time, but Hiccup really doubted it.

Emma wasn’t really a child, but not a teenager either, yet Hiccup could say that he was really fond of her. Maybe it was the way she was always able to take Jack down a peg. The auburn haired teen had to admit that it was pretty impressive.

_Not for me! She iz eviiiiiil, I tell you Hic, evillllllll D: <!!!_

_Maybe she learned from the better?_

_Hey! I’m not that bad! Annoying - yes, definitely, absolutely!* But not that bad (_ ｀ _ε´_ _)_

_I remember that you poured sugar into Principal’s car’s tank once. Tell me this is not evil :P._

_No, that was a prank D: <! Something funny! _ヽ _(_ ヅ _)_ ノ

 _The Principle wasn’t laughing at that._ After a second Hiccup added _. You weren’t laughing either when you had detention after it._

_Still worth it =D!_

Hiccup rolled his eyes.

Talking with Jack was actually pretty fun. He replied fast (not as slowly as Astrid often did) and it was amusing to bicker through messages. Not to mention, it felt oddly natural and smooth. Talking through messages was easier for Hiccup. He had less problems with responding and speaking his mind. Of course, he was totally against talking about important things through messages, but they weren’t doing it. It was only just a little  small talk.

Sometimes (like exactly a minute and a half ago) he even found himself awaiting the reply. Unfortunately, it had happened few times in classes too. His teachers, even if they noticed, didn’t say anything about it. Was it because he was a good student? Maybe. But still, he didn’t really want to not listen during classes. It didn’t seem right. So they talked more when they both were at homes.

Jack often had busy afternoons. Sometimes he had to take Emma for her afternoon Kung Fu classes, sometimes he was meeting with his friends and sometimes he had to help North at his shop. Jack wasn’t one to sit at home doing nothing, yet whenever he had a chance he responded.

Was he doing it with everyone or only with Hiccup? Probably with everyone. Hiccup could imagine four of five messages on Jack’s phone, awaiting a quick reply – Hiccup’s own embedded between some of them. Nevertheless it was still nice.

There was a knock at his door.

“Hiccup, are you in here?” Came the loud voice of his father from the other side.

Hiccup stopped the half-watched episode (he would need to watch it one more time later) and snapped his head back at the door. His phone landed somewhere next to his pillow.

“Come in!” He said, raising his voice a little to be audible on the other side of the wooden surface.

The door creaked heavily when Stoick opened it. The sound woke Toothless up, causing him to glared at the intruder, but as if he decided it wasn’t really worth it, he went back to sleep. Stoick didn’t even notice as he walked inside with a troubled façade. It was strange, because Hiccup knew he hadn’t done anything. So it meant it wasn’t about him… but more about his father.

Stoick clasped his hands together and opened his mouth, but nothing came out. This looked like something much deeper.

Hiccup closed his laptop and propped himself up, leaning more comfortably onto the wall and making space for his father to sit on his bed. Stoick noticed it, because he moved and slumped down. The bed’s leg howled painfully under the weight, but withstood it.

For few seconds, maybe even minutes, Stoick only sat there with his hands on his knees and eyes staring at the open door. His beard moved, like he was mumbling something to himself, but no words came out. He got rid of the suit he needed to wear, leaving him only in a white shirt that wrinkled all over his back. Stoick was tense and Hiccup didn’t know what to do. Such great son he was…

No, during last few weeks it had been Stoick making efforts, now was Hiccup’s turn to do it. It might be awkward or odd, be he at least has to try.

“So…” Hiccup cleared his throat. “What’s up?”

Stoick turned to him and through his tired eyes shone small particles of amusement. Had Hiccup said something wrong? He just wanted to start a conversation.

“Are you asking about work or…?”

So, this was it. His whole father. He hated to beat around the bush. Stoick preferred to be straightforward with everything. But they never really talked about very important things, so Hiccup didn’t know whether he should just ask or not. Guess the first option was better.

“Okay, never mind. What’s troubling you?” Stoick smiled at him.

“That’s way better.” Then he put his hands on his knees and took a deep breath, probably trying to let the pressure fly away. “So you remember when we talked about my friend on Sunday ?”

Hiccup remembered well. “The one that gave you some problems. Yes, I remember. And what did you do? Did you agree on a meeting?”

Somehow the idea of his father meeting with someone that caused him trouble wasn’t too appealing for Hiccup. His father was big, bulky, strong, muscular, brave and could take care of himself, and yet Hiccup just couldn’t stop worrying. Because with all these features, came the short temper – not as good as the previous ones. Hiccup knew that if someone would push even the smallest button inside Stoick’s head, he would burst out like a dynamite. And his father didn’t need any more problems.

“Not really. Although I replied him, not really saying ‘no’ or ‘yes’ to his proposition.”

“And?” Hiccup moved a little bit closer.

“He said he’d received a pass for two weeks and wanted to meet up with old friends during the upcoming holidays.”

Okay, so this sounded quite normal. Hiccup didn’t know about the past, but maybe that could happen? Yet, Stoick didn’t look convinced. Hiccup wanted to ask why his Father’s friend was sent to jail, but found himself not asking about it. He only hoped it wasn’t something very bad.

He was opening his mouth to speak, when Stoick continued:

“And I wanted to ask what you advise me to do…”

Stoick asked him for an advice. Hiccup felt the complex of pride and sadness nucleating inside his stomach. He had been awaiting this moment, wanted his father to ask him about something important, but with it came the sudden weight of responsibility. This wasn’t a simple query about dinner or where to go on vacation. This was more complicated, some weird arduous differential equation. Yet Hiccup wanted to try really hard to help his father.

“Okay, this will be my point of view, so you don’t have to listen to me or anything like that…” Stoick stared at him, his eyes drilling holes inside Hiccup’s head, yet it looked like the man anticipated the next words. “I don’t know what happened between you guys. I don’t know if that was very bad or not. But… I don’t know. I have a feeling that if you really didn’t want to meet him, you would just disagree, but you didn’t. So some part of you has already forgiven him…” For what, Hiccup wasn’t sure. Stoick scrunched his nose. It looked like Hiccup had misused some word. “Okay, maybe not forgiven then. So maybe you’re just curious? I mean, he was your friend, it’s totally natural to want to hear from him.” At least Hiccup though so. Stoick beard moved, like he mulled this idea in his mouth.

“So, you’re advising me to meet him?” He finally asked, the unsure tones ringing at the end of his sentence.

Was he really doing it? To be honest Hiccup wasn’t sure what the best option here was. Not to mention he didn’t really want to make such one-sided choices – yes or no, good or bad – because he didn’t have all hints as to how to answer properly. But it looked like his father needed it, some kind of guide, some kind of voice from the outside world, some kind of push.

In life there are many uncomfortable choices and moments, Hiccup knew he needed to get used to some of them.

“I think so? I mean, otherwise you would be regretting not meeting him. But if you meet him and then decide to never do it again, then what stops you from doing just that?” Hiccup pushed away the bangs from his forehead. There were a few droplets of sweat on it.

Stoick turned his head, staring at the wall and half-open door. There was a huge wrinkle on his forehead that twitched whenever he scrunched his nose or moved his mouth. His eyes were focused on something in the distance, but Hiccup knew there was an enormous thinking process inside his brain right now.

Hiccup waited patiently, patting Toothless and glancing at his father from time to time. He anticipated the answer Stoick would give. It kind of depended on what Hiccup just told him, so he couldn’t help but be curious as to whether Stoick would consider it.

Then after maybe three or four minutes the bulky man turned to him and nodded.

“I think I will follow your advice. You’re right, I can just fully stop keeping in touch him if the meeting doesn’t please me.” Then his bear moved upwards. It looked like he smiled a little. “Thanks…”

Hiccup felt some spark of satisfaction appearing inside his stomach. He really did it, he managed to help his father, even if only a little bit!

“N-no problem.” And of course, he stuttered. He wasn’t even surprised. He just felt really… really glad. “Happy to be any help.”

Stoick nodded one more time, probably showing that he acknowledged what Hiccup just said.

“I’m glad I asked you. Now I need to do some small work…”

The man stood up and moved to the door. He caught the fake golden handle, but before he exited the room, he turned on his heels and looked at Hiccup.

The auburn haired boy had his laptop already on his lap with hand glued to his phone.

“Hiccup… did something happen?” He finally asked, now weirdly silencing the mighty tone of his voice.

Hiccup was confused by this question. It was Stoick who had a problem, not his son, so he slowly shook his head.

“No, nothing that I can think of…” He said, trying to remember something from the last week that may have made his father think something was wrong, but found nothing. This week was weirdly uneventful in a very nice way.

“Good, good. It’s just… you seemed very happy for the last few days and I wondered if something happened to you… or maybe, you know, you found someone…” Stoick one more time clasped his hands together, letting go of the handle. His eyes were on Hiccup, yet he had a feeling that the man wanted to look somewhere else. Was his father… flustered? No, this couldn’t be true. But the way he said that… And the meaning of his sentence…

Oh gosh, oh gosh, Bernoulli*, was it reality? Had Stoick just asked whether Hiccup had a date?

“No! No, no, no, no!” Hiccup’s hands waved protectively in front of him. His phone landed somewhere on the keyboard, clicking few buttons and changing the tab in the process. “No, I don’t have a date!” Oh, this sounded even weirded coming out of his mouth. “I’m just meeting a friend tomorrow and you could say that I’m… pretty excited about it!” His face was definitely as red as burning strontium*. “But this is not a date!”

Well, that should be a date for everyone else from the school, but not for them. Or at least this was what Hiccup thought. But no, of course, in his mind it wasn’t a date. A meeting? Probably?

“Okay, sure, sure, that’s fine. But if it were  a date, it’d be fine too!” Stoick looked as uncomfortable as Hiccup probably did. His face was also tinted with soft pink hues.

“Do I know him?”

“No. I mean kind of yes? It’s this guy I was helping with Math…” Had Hiccup even told his father Jack’s name? He wasn’t sure. Probably not. Maybe he should change it. “His name is Jackson Overland.”

Stoick’s mouth formed a thin line. He nodded slowly, but still averted the small teen’s gaze.

“Oh okay, so I hope you’ll have a good time anyway. If it’s not a date… but if it is, I

also wish for you to have a good time.”

Hiccup couldn’t believe the conversation he was having right now. Maybe if he weren’t so embarrassed and terrified by it, he would have started laughing. But right then, he just wanted to hide his face in the pillow and scream.

Yet, there was something endearing in his father trying so hard to wish him a happy time. So Hiccup held these mixed emotions inside of him and put on a smile.

“It’s not a date, but thanks…”

Stoick stopped looking everywhere but at him and he finally looked at Hiccup’s face. He probably noticed the giant blush immediately, but didn’t comment on that.

“O-okay then. Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes.”

“Okay.”

And with that his father finally left his room, glancing one more time at Hiccup.

When he was left alone with Toothless, he took a deep breath, that he hoped could help him calm his nerves, but it actually didn’t do its job properly. So Hiccup slumped down on his bed, now fully lying down. His laptop was currently warming up his stomach, where the screen blinked with new messages from Astrid and Fishlegs.

Toothless hissed when the sweaty hand landed on his head, but didn’t back away. It was a sign for Hiccup that he should pet him anyway. It wasn’t a real date, right? No, definitely not. Jack wouldn’t take Hiccup on a date. They were fake-dating, so it was a fake-date. Did something like that even exist? Ugh, it was all so complicated.

His other hand moved around the bed, until he found his phone lying somewhere near his hip. He lifted it to his face.

_I told you, I told you! Just seconds ago she put pepper in my tea, she is grando eviiiiiil mastermind D: <!_

Hiccup could really imagine Emma doing it.

_Stop being mean to her then D:!_

_On which side you’re on? ): < Shouldn’t you be on your boyfriend’s side rather than his sister’s? _ノಠ ___ ಠノ Hiccup chuckled.

_Maybe I would be on my real boyfriend’s side, not fake one ;)_

_Touchee : < Remember to bring me that awfully boring book m’kay? =D_

The precious _1984_ was lying faithfully on Hiccup’s desk, just waiting to be grabbed on the next day. He couldn’t wait for Jack to read it. That was if he read it at all, of course. But Hiccup would take care of that.

Even if he had to play those horror games he hated.

* * *

Jack knew that life was too perfect to be true. He knew it the day earlier when he was laying in his bed that everything was going too smoothly. He had everything planned in the evening. His evil plan was so good, so polished, and so ideal that it simply had to work. That was if Aster didn’t destroy it first thing in the morning.

Jack woke up in a very good mood. Not to mention, very early for him. It didn’t happen often for him to wake up at 9 am on a Saturday. Even North classified it as odd and did not fail to voice it loudly when Jack paraded into the kitchen to make himself some coffee.

“Everything okay, Jack?” He asked, lifting one his eyebrow from behind the newspaper held in his bear’s hand. Emma gladly was still asleep.

“Yes, why do you ask?” Jack checked the kettle to see that it was still hot. So it meant that his father had been doing his coffee not too long ago. Great! He grabbed the jar with instant coffee and poured two tea spoons inside.

“You rarely wake up so early on Saturdays…”

Jack rolled his eyes, but the small grin tugged at the corner of his lips. He poured the water inside the cup and almost danced his way  to the fridge, from which he took milk.

He still had time until 3 pm, quite plenty of time actually. But Jack felt like waking up early. He was afraid of oversleeping. Not to mention this way he still could do some things in the morning, like maybe start his homework…

Ugh, did he seriously just think about doing his homework? Hiccup must have been brushing on his mind too hard.

“I have plans for the afternoon, so I didn’t want to oversleep.” Humming softly, he added milk.

“Don’t you ever have plans?” North playfully asked.

Jack had to agree with him. He rarely had free days – those free days when he was literally doing nothing, only sit in front of his computer. And some of the people liked those free days, Jack could really see the advantages of those days, it was just that… he preferred to do something other than sit all day in front of a computer. He loved to do it in late evenings, or maybe half of the night, but not all day! Maybe he had been born in the wrong century?

“You know me too well… but today is kind of different.” Jack smirked under his nose. He then took a sip of his coffee. Perfect, just the way he liked it.

“Date?”

And the coffee went into the wrong hole inside his throat, blocking his breathing ability for few seconds. His eyes got watery as Jack desperately tried to redirect the flow of the fluid by coughing and hitting his chest very hard.

North was standing up to help him, but Jack waved at him to stay where he was.

“No…” Okay, Jack was able to take a short breath. “No need to do that…”

North’s hit could break his spine. Jack liked his bones whole, without cracks. After a few more seconds, he was able to function more properly.

“No, Dad it’s not a date…”

Well, not for him, but if his plan worked correctly then maybe it would transform into a date - date for Hiccup and Aster. Oh, Jack couldn’t wait for that.

“Oh, my mistake.” North chuckled. “It’s just, the last time I saw you so joyful on a Saturday morning was when you were going on a date.”

Jack smiled under his nose. He remembered those times as well. Even though all his past relationships ended and he was now a free man (maybe not so free), he still kept in touch with all his exes. He couldn’t understand this hate that was spreading over the world when people ended their relationships. He could understand that maybe maintaining friendship could be hard after ending a relationship, but come on! Just because it didn’t work out, it didn’t mean he had to lose a friend.

But those times ended for him and now he was simply enjoying the fact that he was able to spend some time with his new friend. And maybe even do something special for him. Two people might even gain from it, which was even better in Jack’s opinion. “Yeah…” Jack said with a small grin, because he didn’t really know what else to add.

“It’s just a meeting.”

“Oh good, have fun then.”

The white haired teen nodded and shuffled his feet in the direction of the stairs, planning to hide in his room and maybe really do his homework, when he was once again stopped by his father .

“Um hey, Jack. I forgot to tell you that Eris* called me yesterday. She sent you money for this month, so it should be on your account on Monday.”

“Oh…” Jack felt as his stomach suddenly dropped. He heard this sentence so many times, that it didn’t really affect his mood too much. But the sudden drop was still there. Guess it would never die. “Cool! This means I can buy caramel popcorn now.” Every cloud has a silver lining. Jack simply could use this money for useful purposes. Not that games weren’t useful. They really were. Maybe Jack should tell her to send the money directly to his Steam account? Nah, that was probably too much.

North looked at him disapproving, but his eyes glinted with a spark of amusement.

“What?” Jack asked, lifting his arms and putting his hands out with a smirk.

“Nothing. Buy that popcorn and enjoy yourself.”

Jack returned to his room, humming something under his nose. He placed his coffee on the desk, turned on the computer and sat on the chair. He should make himself some breakfast, as he felt his stomach twist inside of him. But later.

When he turned on the Facebook, immediately a few chats opened. People just didn’t give him a break and Jack loved it. He responded quickly to some of them. He had to refuse a meeting from Nod* - his friend from their last part-time job, but he quickly scheduled it for another week.

In the end he really started to do his homework. Seriously… what was happening to him? Maybe Hiccup was sending some weird nerd vibes that were washing his brain? With his weird scientific talk it could be totally possible.

Gladly he wasn’t able to focus on it longer than two hours. After this very tedious and difficult time for his brain, which wasn’t usually used to such heavy effort, he decided he needed a break. That could last till the evening (he didn’t really plan the time with Hiccup to be strict).

The rest of the free time he spent playing, glancing at his phone from time to time to not lose track of time. It happened quite few times, so he had to be cautious. He didn’t want to be late on their first fake-date that may turn into a date for Aster and Hiccup.

When it was time, he switched off his computer and moved to put his clothes on.

Everything was going too smoothly. He knew it was too good to be true when his phone blinked, announcing new message.

Jack finished putting on his shirt with a band logo on the front, as he crawled onto his bed to the phone lying near the pillow. He brushed the screen and opened the new message.

His stomach really dropped down, maybe even hit some obstacle and started drowning.

_Sorry Frost, I can’t meet you and Hiccup today. Emergency at my Dad’s work. Some asshole shot a deer._

He almost could hear the crumbling sound of something breaking inside of him. This couldn’t be happening. He had planned it all. He had wanted to meet with Hiccup, then Aster would come too and Jack planned on leaving them together. Of course, Jack was aware that nothing would happen between them, because he knew Aster too well and Hiccup didn’t look like a person to make the first move, but… He just wanted to do something for Hiccup to thank him for his help.

But now half of the plan was ruined. That left only him and Hiccup. Jack wanted to meet with the auburn haired boy and talk, joke, laugh about dumb things, but it simply wasn’t the same.

Jack was so glad it was supposed to be a surprise, because he wouldn’t be able to stand seeing Hiccup’s probably disappointed face, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

However he was Jack ‘Frost’ Overland – the guy with a Master’s degree in happiness, enthusiasm, optimism and lifting people’s mood up. Seriously, he really has a diploma, drawn by Emma when she was four years old, hidden deep inside a drawer. Even without Aster, he could make this a fun afternoon for both of them.

Just the two of them.

* * *

Starting reading new chapter of a fanfiction was maybe a bad move from Hiccup’s side, but he couldn’t stop himself. Yet there he was, packing himself in a hurry and cursing under his nose. Hiccup was so glad he took a shower in the morning and didn’t plan it on later hours.

Stoick was out of the house. It was even better, because he didn’t see Hiccup falling from the last three steps. But no harm done to any furniture, only small scratches on his knee, but Hiccup could live with it.

He put on his warmer jacket and high shoes, because it looked like it could rain and snow any time soon (even though the weather forecast told that it should only be gray). He had his hand on the handle, when he heard Toothless meowing. The auburn haired teen didn’t know why exactly this sound reminded him of the book still laying on the desk, but it gladly did.

“Oh, shit!”

Fully clothed, Hiccup ran upstairs and burst into his room. He quickly grabbed the book on the desk and marched down with it under his arm. Toothless found perfect place for an afternoon nap on the table. Hiccup had no time to yell at him for actually jumping onto the furniture as he had only like thirteen minutes to get to the mall. He leaped out of the house. It took him three times to finally put the key inside the lock and close the door.

The day indeed was dark and cold. The heavy, dusty clouds floated above their heads, looking menacingly, like a burn filter paper that was accidentally aflame during incineration. The wind that accompanied this weather was freezing and dense, pushing past people with brute force, making it hard for Hiccup to actually walk properly. Why was wind in Burgess always so angry and strong?

His glasses hung on the end of his nose and his eyes got watery, due to the cold air. It stung a little, but the most important problem was the fact that it was hard to see properly. He was able to see people when he was very close to them, but he had to make few weird swirls and jumps when he was afraid he would almost crash into someone. His leg wasn’t helping him much, but he got used to it. He still had six minutes left.

The wind died down a little when Hiccup got closer to the city center. The high buildings blocked it, but unfortunately not completely. Not to mention the crowd was bigger than on the outskirts. Some people could move better in a crowd when they were smaller, but not Hiccup. Especially not with his leg and a defect of vision. When he finally stopped at the lights, he took a deep breath.

He wasn’t running per se, just walking very fast. He hated to be late to any meeting, even though he was used to Astrid being late almost everywhere. Plus - this probably was a date. Fake one, but still Hiccup wanted to be on time.

When the light turned green, he made a spin and passed a pair in front of him, fastening his pace in the same time. He will be soon out of breath, but he wasn’t now too far away. He’ll only be late like a minute or maybe even less.

That was until he bumped into someone while turning the corner. Seriously, was his whole life just a big mess of weird accidents? He didn’t sign himself up for this! Should he write an rejection letter? But to whom he should send it?

The vector of the strength that was put onto him during the collision was working in the opposite direction of his goal, so he made a few steps back, swaying on his legs and waving his hands, trying to search for some kind of support to not fall down. Gladly, the person in whom he bumped caught his hand and hoisted him up quickly to his legs. It happened so fast, that Hiccup wasn’t able to take a proper breath or even yelp in surprise.

“Oh, shit, sorry my fault. I wasn’t looking where I was going…” The voice was weirdly familiar.

“No, it was my fau…” Hiccup with trembling hand pushed his glasses higher while lifting his head to finally stare at the source of his problem and savior, both in the same time. “…lt…”

Seriously, okay, where should he go to receive his prize for the worst luck on the whole Earth in the accidental meetings? Because, seriously, not to mention it was bad, but it also was starting to get boring. It was almost like the Norns* were replying some old cassette over and over again, snickering under their noses. Yeah, Hiccup felt like that when he was standing right now in front of Dagur.

What was even more surprising was the sudden disbelieve clearly painted on the taller teen face, like he only recognized Hiccup just now.

“Oh…”  Dagur murmured. “Hey…”

Hiccup wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he only mumbled back:

“Hey…”

And then there was silence. A heavy, overly dense, unpleasant, sour silence. The people around them were still chattering, but the sound of it was dulled, like there was suddenly an invisible barrier between them and the rest of the world.

Hiccup waited for some kind of not tasteful pick-up line, some kind of gross movement, maybe even an evil smirk – he waited for all those things that came with Dagur whenever he appeared near Hiccup. He waited and waited, but nothing happened. What was going on?

They stood there awkwardly, in front of each other, but Hiccup wasn’t really looking at his companion. He was bracing himself for something, but this something never really came.

Finally, after his beating heart calmed a little (from stress or from fear, Hiccup wasn’t sure), Hiccup found his bravery to look up.

Dagur looked troubled. He was staring back at him, but there was something different in his eyes - not predatory need, not evil glint, not crazy spark. They looked weirdly dulled, maybe sad or… exhausted.

“Sorry, I really didn’t see you there…” Dagur repeated himself, massaging his eyes. It looked like he wasn’t conscious that not only few seconds ago he said almost the same thing. Or maybe he just wanted to fill the void between them.

“Don’t worry, it happens…” Hiccup muttered. If it would be anyone else he would add that it was because of his small height, but it was Dagur – not one of his friends.

The red haired male opened his mouth once again, eyes darting to the window next to them, then to the street to finally land on the ground. They widened for a brief second and then Dagur kneeled to pick something from the ground.

“I believe it’s yours… Don’t worry, it isn’t too dirty.”

Hiccup bit his bottom lip, staring at the book in Dagur’s hand. It was covered in small crumbs and dust, but looked more over okay. Now, Hiccup was really grateful it wasn’t still raining. He hated to think that something could happen to his precious copy of _1984_.

He reached and took the book, trying hard to not brush his hand on Dagur’s own. He succeeded. When he had the book in his hand, Hiccup turned it over to see if there really was no damages, but indeed there wasn’t. He closed his eyes and sighed.

“It’s your copy?” Dagur suddenly asked.

He could always find some kind of excuse and run away from this place, because it looked like the older teen was out of this world – like he was replaced by some weird, imperfect copy of himself – and Hiccup didn’t know if it was safe to be near _this_ Dagur.

However he found himself nodding.

“Y-yeah. After I read the one from library, I just had to have my own copy…” And it was the truth. Hiccup loved to collect books that were really important to him and this one was on the highest place on the list. “Now I’m lending it to Jack, so he could also read it.”

Jack must really want to see Hiccup getting scared that he agreed to read a book that wasn’t in his field of interest.

“Well… that’s cool…” Dagur said, changing his weight to the other leg. “Let’s hope that he isn’t afraid of rats then…”

Hiccup heard this sentence. It went inside his ears as a wave, the eardrums allowed it to move forward, his brain slowly processed it, but it felt like light years before he finally understood what Dagur actually said.

And the only thing he was able to say to that was very smart:

“What?”

To which Dagur replied with the same level of intelligence.

“What?” The taller teen lifted his one eyebrow, with confusion quickly growing on his face. Hiccup couldn’t really believe what he just heard. But it must have happened! Because if not, then how Dagur was able to know about rats?

Hiccup clenched his hands on the book and moved it closer to his chest. He raised his head, feeling something rising inside his lungs, stomach and throat – an excitement. It was weird, because it was the first time he felt excited around Dagur of all people.

“D-did you read it?” Hiccup was somehow able to ask, without stuttering too much.

Dagur blinked. His hand moved to hid inside the pockets, where it looked like he played with something. Maybe phone or keys, because Hiccup heard some clinging sound.

“Umm yeah, I read it some time ago, but I had to say I didn’t really like it…” He finally said, looking back at Hiccup, but it looked like he wanted to avert his eyes.

Hiccup chuckled under his nose.

“No wonder, it is book about dystopia, not utopia.” Hiccup said, daring to form a small, tiny smile.

Dagur looked dumbfounded. Hiccup wasn’t sure if it was because of what Hiccup just told or because Hiccup was prolonging the topic. Both were possible answers. “Umm… yeah… you’re right…” Dagur finally mumbled, barely opening his lips. The voice came out very quietly.

Hiccup had almost to move closer to hear it, but he wasn’t keen on doing it. Maybe Dagur was acting weird (normal wasn’t the word he would use), but Hiccup didn’t want to take his chances.

The smaller teen coughed, as he looked down at his book and brushed away dirt from the corner. It wasn’t pretty visible and could simply stay there, but he needed something to do.

Dagur looked at a shop’s window next to him. Few times he made few quick glances in Hiccup’s direction, yet did nothing but that. Seriously, this was strange. It felt like someone replaced the old aggressive Dagur with a new, uncomfortable one. Something must have happened to made him act like that. Something big. And it looked like something not nice definitely. Finally, after a minute or two, Hiccup’s phone buzzed. Someone tried to get to him. Then he kind of remembered that he was running late to his meeting with Jack. And indeed yes, when he took out his phone and glanced at the screen, Jack’s ID was blinking furiously at him. Uh oh… He was already ten minutes late.

“I’m sorry, I gotta go!” Hiccup turned to Dagur.

He never have seen any kind of hurt or pain on Dagur’s face. It was almost always an evil smirk, angry look, furrowed eyebrows, pinched together lips or nothing. But now, the look Hiccup saw couldn’t be catalogued under neither of the previous façades.  

“Me too.” Dagur finally said and made a weird movement with his hand. “Work and you know…”

“Um right. So bye?”

“Bye.”

And they parted their ways. Just like that. Without fighting, without remarks, without any weird movement from both sides. Almost like they were friends that didn’t see each other in ages and didn’t know how to act in each other presences (even thought it was far away from the truth).

Hiccup took a deep breath of smelly, city air, but it was a paradise in his lungs. He picked his phone and finally answered the call. Jack’s voice echoed immediately near his ears.

“I don’t want to be mean, but you’re already ten minutes late.” It was supposed to sound angry, however Jack was a bad actor. It felt more like a childish whine. “I know. Sorry, be there in a minute…” Hiccup quickly responded, avoiding a woman that was about to crash into him.

There was a second of silence. Maybe a little bit longer, before Jack spoke:

“Everything’s alright?”

Seriously, Jack’s level of being a worrywart was too high for Hiccup to reach it. He could simply asset that Hiccup’s mood dropped suddenly just by talking with him on the phone – even when his voice was changed and he couldn’t see his face. It was kind of amazing, but scary in the same time.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.” And with that he closed his phone, because seriously, he was one street away from his goal.

* * *

Just almost as Hiccup promised, he emerged from behind the corner a minute later. From Jack’s point of view he looked like he was running the last few streets. The white haired teen moved slowly in his direction, hands in his pocket.

“Sorry I’m late.” Hiccup panted out, putting his hands on his knees and leaning forward.

“No problem.” Jack waved his palm. He didn’t book the tickets for specific time nor movie, so Jack asked for a meeting a little bit earlier. They still had around thirty minutes to one movie Hiccup might like and forty-five till the other. That is if Hiccup will pick one of them. “I didn’t take you as a lazy butt. Huh dude, am I surprised!” Hiccup lifted his head, sending him a not amused twitch of lips. He rolled his eyes as he straightened his body slowly. His breath already evened out.

“I’m usually on time. It’s just… something stopped me today.” Hiccup said, stopping mid-sentence. Like he was thinking about what words he should actually use. Jack already knew that he probably wouldn’t like this. But before he was able to ask about it, Hiccup pushed something in his chest. “Hey, I brought it for you, so now you definitely have to read it.”

Jack looked down at the book pushed inside his body. He slowly unwrapped it from Hiccup’s finger and turned over to stare at the cover. They did have a deal, so he wasn’t very surprised, yet… The blank cover without any picture, only a title - wasn’t really filling him with the will to read it. But hey, what wouldn’t he do to see this small nerd playing _Outlast_?

“Cool.” Or not really. Jack turned it around, not really knowing what he was searching  and he finally hid it in his bag hanging near his hip. He patted the flap protectively, while turning to his fake-date. “Are you ready?”

“For the movies? Definitely.” Hiccup sent him a sly smile, correcting his glasses with one hand.

Jack opened his mouth and closed it.

“How did you…?”

“Astrid. She hates cinemas, so I knew something was up. Then you asked and everything clicked together.” His hands swayed forward and back. “Well, not everything, but I took a lucky shot.”

“I’m not good at surprises, right?” Jack asked, combing his hand through his white strands. He felt just a tini-tiny, microscopically bit embarrassed by that.

“Nah, you just picked up bad collaborator, that is…” Hiccup moved a little bit forward. “Are we going in? It’s pretty cold out there.”

Jack nodded quickly, turning around and allowing Hiccup to fall into steps with him.

He sometimes really forgot that other people didn’t like cold as much as he did. For example, Hiccup was wearing thick jacket with a scarf around his neck when Jack still wore his autumn light jacket.

“Totally.”

They walked for few minutes in silence. Gladly when they entered the Burgess Plaza, the wild chatters wrapped them in a warm hug. There were tons of people walking around, in groups or alone, looking at the sparkling windows and pointing at one thing or another. Every shop was already decorated with Christmas’ spirit – red and golden chains, sparkling lights and colorful baubles decorated every corner and glass. The artificial green trees stood near every turn around, like soldiers on a duty. Kids were running around, screaming happily, dragging their friends and parents and pointing at small present standing on the exhibitions. Jack knew it was pretty loud there, due to the mood casting it’s spell on most of people, but he didn’t mind. He actually preferred sound over the uncomfortable silence without anything.

Yet it looked like Hiccup wasn’t on his side in this matter. He even squinted his eyes when the bright yellow light shone upon them.

“Too many people around?” Jack asked, not really knowing if this was the correct answer. The mannequins on displays were posing gracefully, showing their holidays’ and warm clothes to the people walking by. Many of them had Santa’s hats on top of them.

Hiccup massaged his arm. His jacked made a rustling, squishy sound while doing so.

“Kind of, but I’ll live.” He then loosened his scarf. “The twins love this place, so I had to get used to it, but I still don’t like it.”

“So where are you buying your things if not here?” Jack unzipped his jacket quite quickly. It was too hot in here for his comfort (probably due to the crowd around them). He was glad that he had short sleeved shirt beneath his jacket.

“On the internet or small shops around the town.”

The beige tiles were making whistling sound with their every step.

“But you have everything around here within a reach of a hand.”

“True, but I just don’t like this place.” Hiccup stepped onto the moving stairs, whirling softly beneath them. He was on a step higher than Jack’s own, but he was still shorter than the white haired teen. Jack took pleasure in noticing it.

“You’ll live through one afternoon.” Jack quickly said. He took off his jacket and hung it around his bag. He returned his eyes at Hiccup to notice him eying his shirt. Jack had to look down at the band name _– Rise Against_.

“I’ll somehow live through it. Ahh the things I do for love.” The auburn haired teen threw his head back and put his wrist near his forehead, leaning back.

Jack snorted at that small scene in front of him. He had to say it was pretty endearing to see Hiccup act like that. When they first met, he was stiff and very sarcastic. Now, he was even more sarcastic, but more loosened up. It wasn’t the level of Astrid, Jack knew that. He doubted that he could even reach the level of that kind of friendship with Hiccup – without boundaries, without problems in speaking your mind. It was given with years of experience, not something that could be gained in three weeks. “That must be a very big sacrifice from your side.” Jack said and followed Hiccup off the stairs.

“You bet! Aren’t I the best boyfriend ever?”

Jack snickered under his nose. The best boyfriend? Far away from it.

“Nah, you could do better. Besides, you can’t take my title away.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes and turned his head at the giant entrance to the cinema, which was encircled by a auric chain intertwined with a silver, smaller one. Yet Hiccup immediately moved to the burgundy wall on the right, lightened up by the floor lamps and covered in posters with movie titles. He instantly gravitated to the ones mentioned by Astrid. Jack was nicely surprised. Maybe he really should have bought tickets in advance…

“So, what do you want to watch?” The auburn haired boy asked, when they were slowly moving along the posters’ wall. There were few people on their road, already with popcorn and coca cola.

“I asked you out, so you choose.” Jack shrugged and put his hands inside his pockets. He stepped closer, when Hiccup stopped to stare at some poster.

“Such a gentleman.” The head swished from one side to another, almost hitting Jack’s head above it. “Did you see any of these movies?”

Jack hummed under his nose as he followed the line of posters. He rarely went to cinema lately. The tickets were too expensive in his opinion, besides he could always download everything from the internet. It wasn’t that he didn’t like those places. He did – he loved the atmosphere, the popcorn, the weird laughs in the middle of a funny scene. But he could live without visiting this place too often.

His eyes landed on _Monsters University’s_ poster. Man, he was dying to see this prequel. Both he and Emma loved the first movie. Maybe he should take her to see it? But no, she was on it with her class from Elementary School two weeks ago, so that was out of the question. The rest of the posters didn’t seem too interesting.

When Jack looked down at Hiccup, he found him looking back at Jack thoroughly. His eyebrows were a little bit furrowed, with small wrinkle on his nose.

“Nope. So you have to choose.” Then he took out a wallet from his back pocket and took out few bills, pushing them into Hiccup’s palm quickly. “Buy us tickets on whatever movie you want. I buy food in the meantime. Want something specific?” Hiccup looked at the crumped bills in his hand.

“I can pay for myself.” He said, pinching his lips together at the end and staring up at Jack with not amused look.

“I know, but today it’s on me.” Jack grinned wildly. He then made a sweeping away movement with his hands, urging Hiccup to move forward. “Now go, buy tickets. And because you didn’t answer my question I’m just going to buy popcorn and cola for you.”

Hiccup sent him the evilest stare he could muster, which still looked childish, and turned on his heels, stomping away to the cash register and a small line.

From all boys in the world Jack had to pick the most stubborn one. With a heavy sigh on his lips he walked to the buffet. The queue wasn’t moving very fast, but a glance back told Jack that the line near the box office was even slower, so he definitely had time. He ordered two medium popcorns (not caramel in the end) and two medium cola. The guy behind the counter eyed him suspiciously, probably wondering if he could take it all by himself. But Jack had a lot of training with much smaller Emma, when he had to hold all her things while going somewhere, so he was quite proud of his skills.

He left the cashier with half opened mouth when he took two buckets of popcorn and paper tray with drinks without problem.

Jack liked to show off a little. Lately he wasn’t doing it as much as he used to, but the small need was still inside of him – it wasn’t growing, but was there. A planted seed. He waited near the gates where the woman was tearing the tickets and showing people where their auditorium was. In this time he observed as Hiccup approached the cashier and moved closer, probably to be better audible on the other side. That doofus had to stand on his tiptoes to do so. Gosh, just how small was he? Jack snickered under his nose. It was weirdly nice view and he couldn’t pinpoint why. He just liked it. The uneven sway to the side, the fall of his glasses, the twitch of his knees. It was weirdly charming in its strange way.

Hiccup thanked the woman, gathered the tickets and looked around, walking away from the box office.

“Hic!”

The boy’s head snapped to Jack’s direction. He quickly walked there, still with the tickets glued to his chest. Hiccup eyed him up and down, when he was close enough.

“Here, I’ll take one.” He offered.

Jack had nothing against it, so he moved and allowed for Hiccup to take one bucket of popcorn from his grasp. It looked ridiculously big in the auburn haired boy’s hand, but Jack tried really hard to not snort here. Although his lips twitched.

They moved to the gate and Hiccup showed woman their tickets. She looked at them, and then tore part of the tickets*.

“Auditorium number two, on the right at the end.” She said monotonically and steadily, like unmoving water in a lake.

They both thanked her in unison while entering. Jack glanced at Hiccup, but he didn’t look back, like he totally expected it.

Jack walked slowly. They still had around twenty to thirty minutes for the movie right?

So why Hiccup was suddenly stomping so quickly? It wasn’t like they were in a hurry.

When the smaller teen was good few steps away from him, he finally turned around. “If you don’t fasten up your pace, we’re going to be late.”

Jack blinked, surprised by that statement. Was there some performance earlier than he checked? Maybe, although he was almost sure that there wasn’t. Maybe he checked them wrong? He was very excited back then, so he could make a mistake.

Shrugging slowly, he followed the boy.

“Okay. You’re the boss now.”

When they were close enough still gladly opened door, Jack heard sounds coming from the inside. It looked like commercials already started.

Hiccup caught his arm, when he tried to look up at the title showed on the small LED screen above the door, so in the end he walked inside the already dark auditorium now knowing what he will be watching. Talking about surprises, it looked like Jack will be the next victim of it.

Still holding onto Jack’s arm, Hiccup was dragging him to their assigned seats. Jack looked around. In the dark it was hard to see who was sitting in the room, but it looked like there were some adults – maybe college students, because they didn’t look older than Jack when he passed one girl and her date on the quest to their seats.

Hiccup walked inside some row, near the end of the auditorium. They had seats not exactly in the middle, but near one side. There wasn’t anyone besides them in the row. There was only one old man in the row behind them. The rest of the people were in the front.

With small problems, they finally sat down with a loud sighs. Jack’s eyes immediately landed on the screen, where some commercial of a movie for teenagers was ending. He put the colas in their respective slots.

Jack leaned to his right, where Hiccup was seated.

“Will you now tell me what we’ll be watching?” He whispered, moving even an inch closer. They maybe were alone in the back, but Jack knew that his voice sometimes was too loud, even when he tried to be quiet.

Hiccup twitched, but he glanced back at him, not moving actually away.

“You’ll see! Now shush, it’s starting.”

Jack rolled his eyes. Why was this suddenly a secret? Okay, he didn’t tell Hiccup that they were going for the movies, but the smaller teen deduced it. Was he mad about it? No, definitely not. Hiccup wasn’t a type of a guy that was mad over nothing (or something as small as this). Did he want to pay Jack back by not telling the title? Probably.

Jack looked back at the screen just in time to see beautiful, bright animation – or to be more precise a bright background and… pigeon with two heads? With slightly agape mouth he turned to Hiccup.

“You bought tickets for _Monsters University_?” He asked and now his voice was definitely louder than earlier. Some guy turned even to him.

Hiccup curled in himself, hugging the bucket with popcorn to his chest.

“We can always go out if you don’t want to watch it…” The boy responded, not ungluing his eyes from the screen where the movie was going.

“No, no, no I want to watch it, but…”

“So keep quiet and let me enjoy it too!”

Jack patiently returned to his normal sitting position and looked back at the screen. The familiar colors brought back memories. The nostalgia slowly flowed inside his veins, making him slump down with his popcorn on his laps.

He definitely had some question to ask, but later. Now he simply wanted to enjoy the movie.

* * *

Jack slowly started to understand that no matter what they would be watching, Hiccup wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t add some sarcastic comment every twenty minutes. But when they exited the dark auditorium into the corridor filled with light as bright as primrose petals, Jack looked down at Hiccup who was smiling under his nose. Jack took it as a fact that the boy enjoyed the movie. It wasn’t too childish, not to mention the most of the audience were students.

“Oh my gosh, it was so cool! And the animation and characters and ughh!” The white haired teen kind of couldn’t contain his excitement. “I loved it!”

Hiccup next to him scoffed under his nose, but when Jack stared at him, he was smiling softly. He took Jack’s bucket and threw it away while passing trash cans.

“I hope you did, other way it would be wasting money.”

Ah yeah, money. Jack didn’t really care for it that much. The Overland weren’t rich, of course not, but they weren’t poor either. Maybe something in the middle? There were times when they had more money and times when they didn’t. But now, there was time when Jack had money. Especially after what North told him.

“Naah, from time to time I can allow myself some luxury. Especially after Eris sent me money.” Jack could finally put his hands inside his pants. When they finally exited the cinema, Jack decided to brush that topic. “So why did you pick this movie? You should have picked something you like. I asked you out, not the other way around.”

“Well, I…” Hiccup started, but then he covered his mouth and coughed. This picked Jack’s interest, so he glued his stare to the smaller teen next to him. “I saw you looking at the poster… so I though you wanted to watch it…”

If this wasn’t the most adorable thing Jack heard in the last few weeks then he didn’t know what could beat it.

His chest suddenly tightened. It was no longer than a second, maybe even less. But Jack definitely felt that. He felt special. When was the last time someone did something like that for him, without reasons? It wasn’t like his friends were using him and vice versa, but they almost never did something like that. Aster, Tooth and some other people probably did in the past, but long time ago. But Hiccup…?

Jack chuckled, first stretching his mouth in an embarrassed smile. It looked unfortunately that the auburn haired teen took it the wrong way.

“Gee thanks, you make me feel so appreciated right now.” Hiccup was staring back at him, but now with crossed arms and small pout on his lips.

“No, no, no. I wasn’t laughing about you… it’s just…” Jack took a deep breath. “I wanted to do something for you, because thanks to you I’ve got a B+ from Math, but it looks like you did something for me… not the other way around.”

Hiccup blinked few times, then relaxed his hands which slumped down near his body.

“I thought it was about it. You don’t have to thank me over and over again. One time is enough…” He smiled at the end. “Besides I think you deserved it more, you did all the work.”

“Are we now going to argue who did more?” Jack lifted his eyebrow.

“Maybe?”

“Oh no, our first relationship’s fight! I need to write that down in my diary.” Hiccup snorted. He hid his mouth behind his palm, and with his other he hit Jack’s arm. It was very light, but Jack still made a step to the side.

“See, now you are even hitting me! What happened to my sweet, precious baby that I love so much!?” Maybe Jack had too much fun from it, especially adding now quite surprised faces of people passing them by. He tried to keep his voice sounding as pained and hurtful as he could.

Hiccup rolled his eyes.

“Stop it, it’s not funny.” But he was still smiling at him, so Jack decided to prolong it just a bit.

“See, this is the problem. We never talk about them!”

“Jack, stop it! People are watching!” Hiccup’s voice was urgent and even thought there was still a small grin on his lips, Jack knew that he was slowly moving to the line that he shouldn’t cross.

“Okay, we talk about it at home then. As always.” Jack scoffed, under his nose, but when they passed the corner and started to move down the stairs, he nudged

Hiccup’s arm. There wasn’t anyone here. “You seriously didn’t have to do that, you know?”

“I know, but I wanted to. You really deserve it.” It looked like Hiccup wasn’t too conscious right now. His eyes were looking hardly at the ground, like he was very careful to not slip and fall down suddenly. Was he really such a klutz? “How did you know I wanted to watch it?” Jack asked instead, because he remembered well telling Hiccup not seeing any of the movies on the posters (which was truth).

“Your eyes…” Hiccup started to immediately stop. Jack glanced down at him, but it looked like Hiccup slumped down in his position even more, like he wanted to curl and disappear.

Jack waited patiently, feeling the curiosity growing inside of him. His hands fidgeted inside his pockets, not really knowing what to do. Sadly he was unable to hold it any longer, because after two minutes he leaned near the boy and repeated:

“My eyes…?”

Hiccup took a shallow breath.

“You were looking a little bit longer at the poster with it and I thought that you looked like you really wanted to see it… so… you know… I took my another lucky shot.” Jack stopped moving in the middle of the stairs. His eyes followed Hiccup who walked two more steps down, until he noticed that the white haired teen wasn’t following him. The auburn haired boy also stopped and turned around to look at him Seriously… this was so nice and kind and adorable and pure that Jack couldn’t understand how someone could do something so entirely pure. Especially for someone like Jack!

The warmness flooded his stomach. For a second he even felt a prickling inside his eyes, but he quickly brushed it off.

Hiccup lifted his one eyebrow.

“Jack, everything okay?” He asked unsurely. Jack could also take his lucky shoot.

“Run.” He said, with the most straightforward face he could muster right now. It seemed like it worked, because Hiccup immediately tensed.

“W-what? Why?”

“Because if you don’t do it, I will hug you right here, right now.”

“Huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huff, it definitely took some time to post it! But I have a valid reason, because Eliaze offered to help me with beta-reading =D! You don’t even know how happy I am to hear it. And due to her and mine work it took some time to correct this chapter (some parts will be still swapped later, so don’t worry if sudden update will pop out). Especially as I have a lot of fun talking with her <3 So great thanks to:
> 
> Eliaze Ravenfeather – for becoming my beta-reader! Omg, you don’t even know how happy I am that you’re helping me with checking it. And your work is so amazing! And I totally love our talks! You’re great!
> 
> Nerds’ fact:  
> * Cardinals - are passerine birds found in North and South America. They have very lush/alive/bright red feathers.  
> * Cryoscopy method - technique which determines relative molecular mass of a substance based on the lowering of the freezing point of a solvent when a known quantity of solute is added. And let me tell you… this is a pain in the ass to do it. Like seriously, we had to hold the giant thermometer, stir the solution, add substance, check time and write down the measurements in the same time.  
> * Phenolphthalein in the alkaline environment – it turns colorless in acidic solutions and pink in basic solutions.  
> * Burning strontium – strontium burns in very bright red/burgundy color.  
> * The Norns – in Norse mythology they are female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men.  
> * Daniel Bernoulli – was a Swiss mathematician and physicist and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. He has developed one of the fundamental equations of hydrodynamics.
> 
> Other facts:  
> * ‘Yes, definitely, absolutely!’ – if someone got this reference, then they deserve a high-five from me. It’s from Gravity Falls, from the very first episode =D  
> * Eris – from Sinbad: legend of the seven seas.  
> * Nod – from Epic.  
> * Tearing tickets in cinema – I’m not sure if it happens in other countries, but in Poland when he go to the cinema, the guards simply tear a small piece of our tickets before entering. This way they know that the tickets have been checked.  
> * A game Fishlegs was playing – well, the game is real. Do you know what it is? :3  
> Other things to talk about:  
> * Messages and errors in them – Usually the errors and mistakes in them are there on purpose to show different styles of writing of every character.
> 
> And answers to comments:  
> Toffyy – Thaaaanks :3. Awkward characters give me life and power to write more haha xD. And congratulations on guessing the alcohol xDDD  
> Turquesa – Well, it took some time to post next chapter D: I hope you don’t mind and still enjoyed it <3  
> Blitz_lili – Hiccup’s inner though are things I like to write the most <3\. And thanks! Fun fact – I feel like I focus more about him in the future, than the main pair haha xDDD. I’m so happy that you like the references, I know sometimes they are too much, but I can’t stop putting them here xDD  
> Clovania – Askjdhbskr, thank youuuuuu ;___;!  
> That one kid – I will try definitely xD This chapter took some time to post, but I hope you enjoyed it <3.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you will have an amazing day!  
> See ya :3!


	6. Joule's second law

**Joule’s second law** – the internal energy – _U_ – of a given mass of an ideal gas is independent of its volume and pressure, depending only on its temperature – _T_.

 

The second he heard the words leaving Jack’s lips, he became as rigid as a steel beam.

“What?” Hiccup murmured, not really believing that the taller teen actually would do that.

But when Jack started moving, the auburn haired boy knew his friend was speaking the truth and he… didn’t need any more encouragement.

Hiccup turned on his heels and simply started running down the stairs. Was even running on stairs allowed? Running near pools was definitely out of the question, but stairs? Hiccup wasn’t sure. Once or twice he unfortunately almost slipped, but his hands caught the rail quickly and steadied himself up.

Jack, of course, was on Hiccup’s tail – being an athlete and all that (not counting two working legs), so he simply couldn’t be too far away.

“Let me love you!” He yelled, maybe two meters away from Hiccup’s ear.

“Fuck off!” Was Hiccup’s response decorated with a… grin? No, this couldn’t be true. It was childish, dangerous even to run like crazy in a shopping mall.

It looked like Jack also liked the response, because he laughed heartily, but too close for Hiccup’s comfort, which resulted in him fastening up the pace.

He was so glad that they only passed some old lady, who only shot them a very surprised glance, maybe even yelled at them, but the sound got lost in the wheezing air around Hiccup’s ear and his loud beating heart. He didn’t remember the last time he had ran so fast down the stairs or ran in general. Maybe it would be more honest to say he didn’t remember running down the stairs at all in his life. But somehow feeling the presence of his friend at the back of his heels was giving him the power to move forward and play this game a little bit more.

It was really amusing – feeling the sudden rush of adrenaline moving fast in his veins and containing the laughter trying to escape his lips.

Hiccup failed the last task as he chuckled under his nose when he was passing another corner and jumping on a step with Jack following not soon after. They had only one floor left.

He was almost out of breath after finishing the first floor of stairs, but now he was panting heavily in the rhythm of the buzzing blood in his ears. The happiness bubbled, grew inside his stomach, like a balloon, inches away from blowing up.

“ _Here’s Johnny!”_

“That’s even worse, Jack!”

But the boy behind him only laughed.

Hiccup landed on the first floor with a loud huff and his legs buckling beneath him. For a second or two he was afraid he would fall down, but somehow he was able to overcome it. It seriously had to be magic, because scientifically he should just slump down and die from exhaustion.

Jack landed two seconds later.

“Now you won’t outrun me on the straight road.”

Hiccup knew from the very beginning that he would lose this race. He was more surprised that he was able to run so long without being captured by the mighty enemy (or maybe Jack was just giving him a head start). However he refused to give up without a fight, so Hiccup started running once again.

Yet Jack was right. In five seconds he felt something wrapping around his chest and lifting him up from the floor.

“I got ya!”

Hiccup yelped, not very manly, feeling he got disconnected from the ground and now was levitating in Jack’s arms.

“See I told you I would catch you.” The white haired teen was panting a little though.

Hiccup was more out of breath than Jack, but it wasn’t surprising at all. Jack was a member in school’s football team, not Hiccup.

“I…” One shallow breath. “I never…” Another. His heart was jumping wildly in his crushed by Jack ribcage. “I never doubted it.”

“Good.”

Jack slowly put him down from the awkward position. Hiccup was glad, because he felt hot and dizzy due to the sudden exhaustion. Well, he had to admit that this hug wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. It lasted maybe for five seconds and it was enough for him.

When Jack’s hands unwrapped him, Hiccup sighed with relieve, feeling the droplets of sweat running down the side of his face. In the blink of an eye it was over.

He turned around.

“So what do you want to…”

But it wasn’t over. Hiccup didn’t even finish his sentence when he felt that warmness around his body once again. It was like a fire - small glimmer of a lit match inside his stomach. Jack’s hand wrapped him in an embrace, not tight, not overly hot, not too intimate, but very honest and sincere.

They were both out of breath. Hiccup even heard the white haired teen exhaling and inhaling maybe not fast, but quicker than normal near his ear. Jack’s hands rested on his back, not really pushing him too much into the hug.

Hiccup didn’t know that he could ever have so understanding hug in his life. It wasn’t the too tight Astrid’s hug, it wasn’t the loosened up, barely pat from Fishlegs and Snotlout or weird imitation of hug from the twins. It was a simple embrace, not pushy, but yet it had everything that hug required.

And it almost felt… nice, as surprising as it sounded. It was still hot, yet Hiccup didn’t feel like he was boiling in his clothes. Maybe it was a degree or two too warm, but it was overheated in a good way – similar to this feeling when you are wrapped in a blanket when there is snow outside. They weren’t crushed together, but still stood close with both minimum and maximum of contact in the same time.

If someone could get a Master Degree in hugs, then Jack could definitely get it.

However Hiccup, of course, stood there awkwardly, with his arms hanging limp near his body – a rag doll crushed in the clamp. He heard a sound of someone moving downstairs. It was probably the lady from the stairs, but he couldn’t really move his head to confirm his suspicions.

He felt good and bad both in the same time. Good because – _wow_ – for the first time he felt this something people called _a magic/healing properties of hugs_. And bad, because he wasn’t doing a single thing in term of reciprocating it. Should he move his hands and put them around Jack? Should he lean more? He didn’t know what to do. He felt helpless.

But before he was able to do anything, Jack moved away with his palms maneuvering to Hiccup’s shoulders.

“Was it so bad that it was worth running away?” He asked with grin glued to his face.

“It was definitely the worst.” Hiccup said, even though it wasn’t the full truth. His mouth twitched and he hoped Jack caught the real meaning.

“You know you’re a bad liar.”

He gladly did.

“Says who.” He quickly shot back. It wasn’t Hiccup who was lying so blatantly in the school’s bathroom few weeks ago, quite badly if Hiccup could add. But it saved him from definitely some problems, so he decided not to mention it right now.

“We’re both bad at lying, okay?” Jack moved away, finally freeing Hiccup from their prison – _ekhm!_ – hug.

What was even more bizarre, was the fact that he almost missed it. It left some nice, buzzing and warm feeling inside of him, like warming up engine. Jack really had to be some kind of wizard, or magician, or had some amazing gift of being able to give hugs like that.

“No, you’re worse.” Hiccup turned on his heels and stomped forward, implying to finally go out. He didn’t want to end this afternoon right now, but it was a little bit to dizzy inside the building, especially after their running escapade, so the not exactly fresh, probably highly polluted air, filled with carbon dioxide was actually a nice change.

Jack caught up to him with a loud huffing sound following him:

“Do you always have to have the last word?” He asked.

Jack might or might not have guessed right.

Hiccup only smiled suspiciously, trying to seem mysterious, which only resulted in Jack pinching his cheek in response. Ugh, rude!

* * *

This seriously looked like a real date, even though they both knew it wasn’t. But Jack had fun, so it didn’t really matter. Not to mention Hiccup also looked like he was enjoying himself. so Jack could pat himself on the back.

If he knew this would be so nice then maybe he would think about doing it earlier and not now.

After exiting the Burgess Plaza, Jack asked Hiccup whether he wanted to go already home or not. Hiccup replied that he wasn’t in a hurry to return home. Point on Jack’s side.

The sky hanging above them was gray. It looked like the chances of rain pouring on them were getting higher and higher with every passing minute, yet they both ordered themselves coffees to go and started to roam around the city, without higher purpose.

At first they didn’t talk much. It looked like they always needed some time to find some topic to talk about. Conversations via their phones were a little bit different. They always had some topic to talk on their cellphones. But messages and real life were two different things. So Jack at first started the topic of games. He knew already that Hiccup was bad at playing, what the boy emphasized one more time, and Jack reminded him of the deal. Hiccup only sighed and asked him about few titles from which he had only watched let’s plays. From games they moved to books. They talked a little about classic fantasy titles they both had read. Jack even proposed Hiccup one trilogy to read. It wasn’t the best, but pretty enjoyable. Hiccup said that he would look further into it, what Jack took as a another victory.

They weren’t talking about anything personal, yet Jack felt closer to Hiccup than ever before. They somehow circled around almost half of the town and returned to the small suburbs.

“I can’t really figure you out, Hic…” Jack finally mumbled into his cup. The coffee was almost gone. Shame. He even took the biggest one they had.

“What exactly can’t you figure out?” Hiccup wasn’t looking at him, but at the ground where he was kicking a small rock.

“You say that you’re more a sci-fi guy, but you damn have good knowledge in fantasy books and games…”

Hiccup hummed and then took a sip of his coffee. Plain cafe latte, which he didn’t sugar. Jack took a mental note of that for future references and uses.

“I don’t know if my knowledge is that good. And half of it about fantasy worlds are from Fishlegs. He is a nerd-maniac about it… You would find many common topics with him.” The sentence was underlined with a small smile and a glance to the side.

Some car passed them, lightening their bodies for brief second, but they were swallowed by the darkness quickly after the vehicle disappeared from their sight. The street lamps were quite far away from each other, not giving them that much light either, but nor Jack nor Hiccup really minded. They both knew those streets well.

Their friends often wanted to go to clubs, pizzerias, play games, hang around loud and livid places. Jack actually loved it – especially the energy flowing from so many people surrounding him. He felt better when he was encircled by a crowd (not too dense, not too small, just perfect). Aster and Tooth were totally different matter. With them Jack didn’t have to be around people to feel good. However they rarely went for a walk (only when they had a serious matter to talk about).

It wasn’t a new experience for Jack, but he started to feel similar to a young foal, just learning to walk on a rocky ground - at first making shaky steps, but then you’re getting the hang of it and you’re starting to like it.

It was quite calming. Or maybe it was because Hiccup was with him? Jack couldn’t pinpoint the real reason. It was kind of bugging him, but not really that hard that he couldn’t brush it away as something not very important.

He felt at ease and this was what really mattered. No restrictions, no barriers, no problems to care about. They were there, however he was able to forget about them. Magic. Even Hiccup couldn’t probably scientifically explain it, but Jack was almost sure he would try by blaming it on some weird chemical compound in brain or something like that.

“Fishlegs…” Jack vaguely remembered big, but not very tall boy at their school who moved somewhere not so long ago.

“You probably saw him in our school, before he moved away. But he is going to stay at my house for a little bit during Christmas’ holidays.” Hiccup said.

Jack felt some kind of longing tone dripping from his voice. Hiccup told him that he and Fishlegs were talking almost every day on Skype, but this wasn’t the same as meeting face to face.

Just like them talking via messages. It was great, but Jack preferred to see Hiccup’s face in reality.

Wait… that sounded weird. But if he wanted to see Hiccup’s face to spend time with him then it was perfectly fine, right? Alarm off! No need to panic! Was there even a reason to panic in the first place? Nah, probably not. Jack’s brain was overthinking it. Or overworking like an engine – how Hiccup would say.

“Cool. By the way, are you doing anything specific during holidays?” Jack took the lid and looked inside the cup. It was empty. Shame. He kind of could drink another one.

“What? Are you planning more surprises which aren’t surprising?”

Ugh, rude!

“No, but at least I tried!” Jack scoffed. He got used already to those not nice remarks. It was just a part of who the small teen was – a sarcastic butt.

“I know you did. No, I don’t have anything planned.”

“Maybe we should hang out somewhere? You and me… Aster, Tooth, Astrid, Aster Fishlegs… maybe even Snotlout and twins… and of course Aster…” Half of it was just to tease Hiccup.

And of course the boy groaned loudly. But the light from the street lamp showed Jack the perfect perspective of Hiccup’s pink cheeks. It will never stop be amusing to him

“You mentioned him like… three times.” Hiccup muttered, rolling the cup in his hand. Another trash can wasn’t closer than one hundred meters away.

“I know. Did it pick your curiosity?” Jack wiggled his eyebrows.

Hiccup pushed him away, looking to the other side with a small grin.

“Stop it, you dork! And it did. But…” Then he cleared his throat, one hand moved to the back of his head, where it played with brown lock. Hiccup rarely did it. Jack was used to him playing with his fringe, not the hair on the back. Uh… why was he noticing it in the first place? “I would be interested even, if Aster didn’t come, so yeah. I ask the rest what they are thinking about it.”

That was… really nice of him.

“Cool.” Jack nodded.

They walked those one hundred meters and Hiccup was able to throw away his cup.

They talked a little bit more about movies which were supposed to come out next year. Jack preferred cartoons and animated movies over normal movies, but he had to agree there could be some interesting titles.

Then he had to listen to Hiccup’s fifteen minutes’ monologue about how pissed he was at some of the film adaptations of his favourite books. Like seriously, he was talking for fifteen minutes straight at how angry he was that some movies changed the ending and the characters’ traits.

Jack never heard Hiccup talk without someone interrupting for so long. Not to mention, he was fluttering and flashing his hands everywhere, like a new-born sparrow trying to learn to fly. Jack knew Hiccup was expressing himself with hands a lot, but it was pretty ridiculous, amusing… and cute.

When Hiccup finally finished, his cheeks were ablaze and he was out of breath.

“Ya done?” Jack asked, even though he listened to the full lecture.

Hiccup huffed and brushed his fringe away. The world around was embraced by the darkness of the late hour , but now the dense, gray clouds blocked even the moon, threating to pour the cold rain on them very soon. Once or twice Jack heard a rumble in the background, not far away. The wind picked up and even he had to zip a little his jacket. The beautiful Winter was just around the corner.

“For now I am.”

“Good, because I started to feel sorry for some of the movies.” It was nice for a change – to be the listener in the conversation. “Did you really have to slate them so much?”

Hiccup bit his lip.

“I-I’m sorry… I got too excited… and… you know… sorry.” His eyes wandered one more time to the ground.

Jack didn’t like the fact that Hiccup was apologizing for showing some parts of himself.

“Don’t worry, to be honest it was pretty interesting!” Jack quickly said, maybe too loud for the smaller teen’s comfort, judging by Hiccup’s sudden twitch, but he wanted to be heard. “Really.” Jack hid his hands inside his pockets. “It is the first time I’ve heard you talk for so long about something you like.”

“Just shut me up next time…”

“Hey, who said I didn’t like it?” Jack nudged Hiccup’s arm, maybe too hard, because the smaller boy swayed significantly to the side and almost fell into bushes. Jack had to catch his jacket and hoist him up quickly to prevent the small crash from happening.

The auburn haired teen glared at him. He pushed his glasses higher.

“You just insinuated it.” He mumbled, barely parting his lips.

“No, I didn’t. Don’t read between lines, smartass!” Jack put his hand on his chest. “I’m a simple man with a simple mind!” He added with a sigh.

Hiccup chuckled. The ominous look fully disappeared from his face.

“You’re much more than a simple man with a simple mind, Jack”

It was a plain statement, but it felt like so much more. Just in what world Hiccup was living where he could say things like that with a straight face and then blush when someone just mentioned Aster near him?

And it was now Jack turn to become flustered. It wasn’t this blush where your cheeks burn and you are as red as a red weed. This was the blush when your cheeks lit a little and there are pink hues all over your skin. Almost impossible to see, especially in the darkness surrounding them.

So Jack was almost one hundred percent sure Hiccup wasn’t able to see it. Gladly.

“Well, I don’t really know how to answer that other than… thanks.”

There was a sudden clench inside his chest – a faraway thunder and a spark of lighting in the distance. Jack didn’t know if he was happy or terrified that Hiccup was thinking like that.

“You’re welcome.” The auburn haired teen said.

For another few meters they didn’t talk, only walked next to each other in comfortable silence.

Jack stared at the sky, interwoven by a faint electricity running through the clouds. The loud grumbles resonated in the air. The storm was definitely coming. It was probably around the corner, waiting for them to be far away from some shelter to struck them down.

And Jack… didn’t really mind. But what about Hiccup? He didn’t look like a type to splash around in puddles and dance under the rainy shower dripping from the sky.

“Uh oh.” The boy next to him mumbled.

Jack glanced down.

“What ‘ _uh oh_ ’?”

“Aren’t there your teammates?” Hiccup’s finger pointed at something in the distance.

Jack had to squint his eyes to see, but he recognized the wild hair of his team Captain. There were four people, however Jack couldn’t see whether he knew the rest. Most likely yes.

“Should we turn back or…?” Jack’s palm moved to the back of his head.

Hiccup blinked as he lifted his head to stare at his friend. They were walking a little bit slower now.

“Maybe they won’t notice?” Hiccup said and flinched when they actually heard the Captain calling Jack from the distance.

The famous white hair, recognizable everywhere.

When he looked to the front, the boy was waving his hand at them both. So no luck, there was no turning back now.

Jack sighed. He didn’t mind this sudden meeting, as he loved to chat with his friends. The problem was that Hiccup was with him – not the fact that Jack was spending time with him, but the whole school kind of still though they were together and Jack didn’t really want this evening to turn uncomfortable for his companion. But hey, Hiccup had lived through the first time they had held hands, so now shouldn’t be so bad either.

Jack wondered for how long they would have to keep the play up. Till the end of the year? But then which year? This one? The school year – so till Jack would graduate? The teen was glad he didn’t have his eyes on anyone, because it would be hella problematic right now. But unfortunately Hiccup did.

Was it troubling him – pretending to be with Jack while crushing after Aster?

Jack nudged Hiccup’s arm and slipped his hand smoothly into the smaller teen’s palm. Hiccup’s hand twitched at the contact, but didn’t move away.

What was Hiccup feeling when he had to fake-date someone, while his crush was just next to him, watching it all? The only good thing was the fact that Aster knew they weren’t really together, but… something just seemed suddenly very wrong. Maybe not even suddenly…

They were technically lying and Jack hated it. He couldn’t hide behind structures like _‘not telling the full truth’_ or _‘you got it wrong, buddy’_. They had lied and were still lying – simple as that – and the guilt was eating him from the inside. Yet it all was for the higher purpose for both of them. If Heather didn’t act like that, if Dagur wasn’t so aggressive, if life was easier…

Jack wanted to reveal the truth one day. Because – let’s not beat around the bush - the heavy burden was there, inside of him, no matter how many times he would tell the reasons behind it.

Jack was glad he didn’t lie to his family. He wouldn’t live with that.

Hiccup suddenly tightened his grip on Jack’s palm.

“Everything’s okay?” He asked in shushed tone, leaning to him a little. The hot air tickled Jack’s ear.

“Umm yeah, I think so.” Should he talk about it with Hiccup? Probably, they were both drowning by now in this. “I was just thinking that one day… I want to reveal the truth…” They were still far away, not to mention they slowed their pace down, so there was some time to talk. “Not because I’m am ashamed of fake or not dating you, but because…” His throat was dry. Must be the cold air.

Hiccup glanced at him few times, munching on his bottom lip. They moved two meters before he finally spoke.

“You feel guilty… right?” Hiccup proposed, looking at him from between his too long fringe.

Jack nodded in response, not trusting his brain right now. Also, he kind of wanted to hear Hiccup’s way of approaching this problem.

What would Jack do if Hiccup didn’t agree to revealing it? He couldn’t do it behind his back. That would be impossible for him.

“Me too…” The auburn haired teen exhaled loudly and Jack sensed something heavy evaporating from his body. “I hate lying… Even though some of my friends know the truth and I don’t really care what the rest of school thinks… there are still some people who deserve knowing the truth. I don’t want for them to find out from some outside source, I want to tell them in person and explain it all.” His chest rose and fell down rapidly. “Not right now, but one day…”

It was now Jack’s turn to hug Hiccup’s palm reassuringly.

“We’re thinking the same.” Jack declared with the relief washing through his veins.

“I’m glad then.” Hiccup’s palm reciprocated the movement.

And suddenly Jack felt closer to Hiccup than ever before. Just like that - the problem maybe was there from the very beginning, but it took him to man up and say it out loud  for it to be solved in few minutes. Perhaps not fully solved – but a first step was made. And he was glad Hiccup had the same approach as him.

Jack swayed their intertwined hands. Hiccup’s skin was a little rough, like it was under the blazing sun for far too long and the skin dried off. The cause could be the dry wind or the talc from the disposable gloves (Hiccup had told him that he had to wear them on their additional laboratories). But somehow it fitted him perfectly.

They were also cold. Jack wasn’t sure if they were like that on account of the weather or the stress. He hoped it was be the first option.

“You think you can handle it?” Jack asked, unsurely. He rocked their hands like a swing, forward and back, up and down.

“What? Meeting your friends or this?” Hiccup stopped their palms in mid-swing and shook it a little to show his point.

Jack wanted to say that he was probably asking about both, but probably about the latter more, however Hiccup sent him a smile and maybe… maybe it was just only his imagination, yet it felt like the smaller teen was grinning more often lately. Not to mention these smiles weren’t as forced as the ones he had used when they had first talked with each other. Those ones were edgy, constricted, forced. They had held a note of fear. But now they were free, similar to birds – opening their wings to take a first free flight and after feeling the sweet, sweet air, high above the ground, they decided to do it more often and often. Jack liked that, it suited Hiccup.

“I’m not made from glass, Jack.” He said. “I know I don’t like people touching me, but it’s not that bad. Don’t act like I will push you away over something like that.”

And yeah, Jack was kind of afraid of being too pushy.

“So this means that I can hug you more often?”

“Don’t press your luck with that one.” Hiccup responded immediately, not missing a single beat. Almost like he knew Jack would say exactly that.

But it was still a step forward. Small, almost invisible one, but it was there.

* * *

“Oh, you’re such a gentleman.” Hiccup snorted under his nose, when Jack had offered Hiccup to walk him home, even though they were already one street away from his house. Better late than ever.

It was pretty late – 10 pm actually. The world around was flooded with darkness and sleepy atmosphere. The suburb wasn’t exactly one of the most vivid parts of Burgess. Teenagers preferred to sit in the heart of the city, where the night was only a name and the fun never ends. Hiccup wasn’t that kind of guy. But he could imagine Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout having the times of their lives in some club after few glasses of beer.

Hiccup preferred leisurely walks around the town with friends.

This afternoon was nice. He couldn’t remember the last time he had done something like that… he wasn’t sure if he ever had evening like this one. If having Jack for a friend was equivalent to those afternoons, then Hiccup was glad that the teen saved him in that bathroom.

They stopped in front of the auburn haired boy’s door… or more like five meters away from it. The light in the living room was dimmed due to curtain blocking it, but Hiccup could see the turned on TV. But was his father up or not?

“So this is the end.” Jack finally said. The wind carried his voice, which sounded weirdly quiet and almost… sad. No, this couldn’t be true.

“Yeah…” Wowser, so lame. Hiccup took his sweet time to correct his glasses, looking everywhere else, but at him, suddenly feeling the tension on his shoulders.

Jack did all of that for him – the cinema, the coffee, the conversations, the laughs, the walk. Hiccup didn’t know whether he deserved it, so he wanted to thank him somehow, but couldn’t find the proper words… or the courage to do so.

“I had fun.” Jack simply summarized it all, like it was one of the plainest law in the whole universe.

Hiccup looked up and saw Jack smiling back at him bashfully. If one smile could have magical properties, then definitely Jack’s one had the ability to crush every barriers put between people.

“Me too.” Hiccup responded truthfully.

“I wanted to finish this evening with a hug, but I guess I pushed my luck earlier, right?”

How could someone be so innocent?

“Quite frankly, Mister.” Hiccup confirmed Jack’s hypothesis.

“Ah damn, then we will do it next time.”

Next time – he said it so naturally, so freely, so simple, without problems, and yet so surely, certainty and unhesitatingly. Almost like a promise. Did Jack really have fun with him? But Hiccup was so dull, so blank, so faint in comparison to Jack’s radiating presence. Jack was like a noble gas in an electric field – radiant, bright, colorful, full of passion, astonishing. And Hiccup was… everything, but that.

“Next time.” Hiccup’s voice was quiet, half-hearted. He couldn’t muster this kind of optimism from himself, even though he really wanted to.

_Hold it!_! – did he just agree to a hug from Jack?

Jack’s palm landed on his hair, which he tousled. Hiccup yelped when his head was quickly moved from side to side with his glasses moving further and further down with every shake. He heard more than actually saw Jack snicker.

When he stopped his harassing, Hiccup was quite dizzy and couldn’t focus properly on Jack’s face.

“Don’t frown so much, it doesn’t suit you.”

“I… I’ll keep that in mind, just… don’t do it.”

“I’m not promising anything.”

And with that Jack turned on his heel and started to walk away, looking back from time to time and waving his hands, when he found Hiccup doing the same too.

* * *

Back at his house, in a very happy mood, Jack pushed his hand inside the pocket in search for keys, when he felt something thin and edgy brushing his finger. Blinking, he grasped all the things he had in his pocket and took them out. He moved under the lamp hanging above the front door to see what exactly he had there. House keys, button from his shirt, clip, receipt and… few bills. He gaped at them for few seconds straight, trying to grasp the idea what were they doing there. He knew that before going out he didn’t have any money inside his pockets, only in his wallet… so this meant…

He quickly recalled how much he had given Hiccup to buy them tickets, then he remembered that the boy hadn’t even given him back a change.

Only he did – a full one.

Jack quickly took out his phone and opened Hiccup’s messages window.

_You sly small nerd_ _（_ _￣_ _＾_ _￣_ _）_

Hiccup replied a minute later, when Jack was taking off his shoes.

_C: Took you long enough._

* * *

The Christmas’ spirit was everywhere in the air surrounding the school. And just like every previous year, the bright decorations appeared in the halls without a warning. One day they weren’t there and the next the whole building was filled with ribbons, chains and Santa’s pictures glued to every window. The Art Club wasn’t slacking.

But the actual holiday was a week and a half away, yet the leisurely atmosphere planted in the school was putting everyone at ease, even teachers, for what Jack was really grateful. They only had one test which was stopping students from fully enjoying the mood, but gladly it wasn’t from Math.

Even though Professor Black didn’t look like a man who enjoys Christmas (Aster believed that the man was spending his holiday planning and writing tests from Hell for them, laughing ominously while doing so), it seemed like the spirit even got to him. Or maybe he was just too pissed to care about anything than a joyful bell, which someone hung above the door to his classroom, ringing loudly every time someone stepped inside.

No one dared to say anything when Professor Black looked with furious eyes at the irritating instrument, after some person walked late to the class, but everyone saw how his palm tightened the grip on the ruler he was currently holding. How it still didn’t crack was a mystery.

The only thing this week missed was definitely snow, but forecast was speculating that Burgess wouldn’t see the white pappus earlier than the next week. It wasn’t too weird. Usually the snow started very near Christmas and lasted almost till March.

This week was very, very uneventful. Or maybe, by starting to fake-date Hiccup, Jack expected for something to happen almost every week? It felt like by saving the auburn haired boy, they had started to skid on an icy road, swirling around, trying to regain their wheeling, but now they more over were able to move smoothly. Maybe that’s why nothing was happening.

He talked almost every day with Hiccup through messages and then they even moved to Skype on a Tuesday very late evening. Hiccup was just pissed, because he had to pick his phone up every two minutes and told him that Skype was more comfortable for him. On the corridors they were making small chats, usually in their group and Jack had to say… he was starting to really like it. Before it was also nice, but now sometimes he was only anticipating it – to meet again and talk.

The weekend was just around the corner. It was Thursday afternoon and Jack was putting his things back in the locker. Aster and Tooth were already waiting for him at the parking lot.

The school building was deserted. His phone vibrated once – Bunny was probably very mad at him for being so late, but he knew Jack was rarely sticking tightly to time schedule.

Content with himself, he threw his bag on his arm, closed the locker, zipped his jacket and moved to the back door, where the parking lot was just within a hand’s reach. He whistled a song which was lately on in his house – some new carol that apparently appealed to North. Jack liked it too, only Emma was groaning whenever she was passing the kitchen and the radio was blasting it on the loudest volume.

Coming to this, the Overlands’ household was already fully decorated for the upcoming holidays. North even had taken one day off to put Christmas’ lights and chains on gutters. Jack could only help him during evenings, but the results were astonishing as always. It was North’s favourite event of the year!

Jack was just few steps away from the door, when he heard a rustling noise - the one a jacket makes while moving. At first he expected some pair to make out in the corner, gripping each other tightly and passionately, but then the sound was followed by a small sob. That kind of sob which just slip past your lips without you noticing it – a tiny mistake.

Jack immediately stopped in his tracks. He evened out his breath and listened for the sound to appear one more time. But he waited around thirty seconds and nothing came. Only when he was about to open the door, he heard it once again.

_‘Your good heart will someday get you in trouble’_ North always said, but with a very sad smile on his lips. Jack every time chuckled at that and brushed it off. Kind heart never put him in too much trouble. Because if you wanted to help, it was always supposed to come out okay… right?

The sound was coming from the stairs on his right, only directed to the upper floor. Jack slowly put foot on the first step and peeked outside the railing to see if someone was maybe sitting there, but he saw no one. He decided to move few steps higher. He wouldn’t forgive himself for leaving this person to fend for themselves.

His steps echoed in the empty corridor, almost like all the previous giddy atmosphere left this place to rot and disappear under the merciless time. One blink, one sound, one terrible shatter of a heart and it was gone. There were two papers from the chewing gum laying around. Even the janitor didn’t visit this place too often. Or maybe he was too preoccupied by the streamers hanging from the railing.

The first thing he noticed was a beige coat huddled on the steps between first and second floor. The next thing he saw was the curly, ebony hair cascading onto the very familiar arms. The third thing he spotted were bright red nails gripping into arms.

Then Jack understood that he actually saw Heather Berserk.

For a moment he froze. Literally – all muscles became rigid as a stone, chest started to get heavy, heart stopped beating, time slowed down and it felt like he was and wasn’t there both in the same time. They didn’t talk in a long time actually. Jack still called her _his friend_. Of course, he cared about her, even with all her clinginess and overly sweet voice which was often there to hid something.

Jack wasn’t a person to leave someone hanging in the school corridor, when they were supposed to be outside, enjoying the approaching holidays.

Jack licked his lips as his body finally moved one step higher.

“Heather?” He tested his voice. It was weak, but delicate.

The girl tensed, her shoulders swam higher, she wanted to curl into herself even more. She didn’t turn around and for a brief second Jack almost though she didn’t hear him (even though it was hard to do so in a silent and desolated corridor).

Then suddenly like a cracking ice beneath feet, she answered:

“What do you want?” Her voice was harsh, low, angry and so un-Heather that Jack didn’t recognize it as the girl’s own voice at first. Until now she was often smiling and  enthusiastic about everything. Of course, she had her worse moments, but the white haired teen never heard her like that – vulnerable.

“Everything’s okay?”

Jack knew it was totally stupid question. He understood that whenever someone felt bad, it was the question this someone really didn’t want to hear. Because it was so… emotionless’ query. People ask it, just because they want to feel like they did something, and yet later they do nothing.

“Yeah, totally, nothing to worry…” The answer was predictable. Who in their right mind would answer otherwise?

But it was far away from truth.

“Are you sure?” Jack nudged, moving even higher and higher with every spoken word. Heather was still curled with her legs close to her chest. Her skirt was wrinkled and slid up, showing her thighs, but Jack paid them no mind. It was only a fact he noticed. Her creamy coat hung on her arms, unbuttoned – she was about to go out, before something happened.

“Yes, I’m sure, Jack. Everything is okay.”

The white haired teen stopped on the mid-floor in front of the sitting girl. Heather stubbornly looked to her right, avoiding his eyes, but he was finally able to take a glimpse of her face.

She didn’t cry, but she looked like she was on the verge of doing so.

“You’re not okay.” Jack stated.

Heather wrinkled her nose. Her pink lips, without the usual red lipstick, formed a thin, tight line and for a second Jack was sure she would snap at him. Just like a broken barricade, under the force of heavy water flushing past the small openings, faster with every passing second.

Jack sat down next to her.

For some time he only heard the soft ticking sound coming from classrooms on the upper and bottom floor. Tic, toc, tic, toc – similar to a marching army under the rules of the great Father Time, moving forward and forward, counting steps till an eruption of an unavoidable battle.

And the explosion came. It wasn’t very sudden, nor was it loud. Slowly, but surely the broken wall crumbled down. Particle after particle, inch after inch.

Everyone always told Jack that he was amazing at lifting people moods up. Supposedly, he always knew what to say, how to act, what kind of button to push to make someone loosen up, cry and then calm down. But the truth was… Jack hella didn’t know what to do. He was nervous, stressed, terrified and above all overwhelmed. He felt like he was just a small peck on a giant field, being pushed around forcefully by a wind. But he knew doing something – just anything – was better than just standing on the side and watching. Even sometimes simple bump to the arm or someone’s presence could do miracles.

Jack always believed in miracles. They were sometimes the only thing keeping someone alive.

He lifted his hand. It was trembling – an autumn leaf, just about to break away and fly down. He slowly put it on Heather’s arm, pulling her in a small embrace. It maybe wasn’t enough, but he wanted to pull some string, to help ease her pain.

Heather leaned on him, putting her head on his arm and for a long moment there was only silence between them. Very heavy, dusty, deadly, scary one…

Jack’s palm moved up and down on the girl’s arm, hoping to soothe her, show her that he was here. His heart was beating wildly inside his chest from nervousness in which he drowned.

Maybe lately Heather wasn’t very subtle, or actually much like her old self, but she was still his friend.

Jack wasn’t sure if she was fully crying as there were no sounds coming from her lips. Maybe she was embarrassed by this situation. But then, from the corner of his eyes, he saw small droplets of tears running down her rosy cheeks.

He wasn’t sure what was worse – the open or the hidden crying. Nevertheless, it was better than nothing, so he pushed her into embrace more, ignoring the vibrations of his phone in his pocket. Aster and Tooth can drive away, there are more important things now.

Minutes flew by, slowly, but surely, and the only thing Jack heard were the rustling sounds of clothes, small gasps and clocks on the corridor. It was morbid. It was cold. It was depressing. It was terrible. He wanted to take her somewhere warm, wrap her in a blanket, give hot cocoa and let her cry easily. Not in the freezing school on the cold floor.

The only thing he could do was hug her tighter.

She eventually calmed down, to this point where she only slumped on him, breathing slowly, but evenly. Jack didn’t stop massaging her arm.

Heather lifted her body and with her sleeve brushed her eyes. Jack instantly moved to his bag, where he took out tissues and gave them to her. Her sleeve was already black with the smeared eyeliner, but she still took the tissue with a small thanks.

Heather brushed her eyes and then blew her nose – not so gracefully.

“Sorry…” She murmured in hoarse voice. The tissue was kept in her hand.

“Don’t be sorry.” Jack responded, holding a small smile on his lips. He moved his hand away and put it on his knee. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

She took a deep breath.

“It’s about Dagur…” The girl finally mumbled, barely partying her lips.

“What about him?”

“He’s being acting weird lately…”

“How weird?” This was strange. Odd. Peculiar. He was talking with Heather about Dagur.

Another silence enveloped them, like a cobweb, gluing together in sticky, heavy atmosphere. Being with Hiccup taught Jack that there are some borders which shouldn’t be crossed, some personal topics which shouldn’t be asked about, some things that people needed to keep for themselves. Feeling comfortable in someone’s presence was one of the most important things in a relationship of any kind.

So he waited till the girl would calm down, relax a little bit (even though Jack knew it was almost impossible) and decide if she wanted to talk or not.

Heather sat next to him, not moving, but evening her breath. She played with the tissue, picking at the ends and not speaking anything for some time.

How was Dagur acting weird? Lately Jack didn’t even hear about him from Hiccup, nor actually saw them near each other. Or maybe Hiccup wasn’t telling him something? But Jack was quite confident about picking out some disturbance in the smaller teen’s mood. Besides, which side of himself was Dagur showing his sister? He doesn’t always behave like a dickhead, that’s for sure, however Jack can’t imagine him as someone who acts awfully sweet. He saw of course Heather and Dagur talking together few times, but from far away.

“He’s… more… indrawn lately.” Heather voice was delicate, faint, and thin - resembling a string of a silk. “And I know he maybe isn’t the most open person, but he was never like that with me. We didn’t tell each other everything – God, forbid that!” She stopped, almost like she wanted to chuckle at what she had said, but the laugh died already in her throat. There was only a pause. ”But it was never to that extent. Now… he just returns home and locks himself in his room… and he doesn’t even talk with me!” Her voice wavered with anger. “I want to help him, because definitely something is bugging him, but how can I do that, if he is not letting me in…” Her arms trembled and she lifted her head to face the ceiling, trying to stop the tears already gathering in the corner of her eyes. The tissue in her hand was clenched harder as she took another shallow breath.

Jack was only able to watch and move closer, trying to help somehow by being close.

He seriously didn’t know how to respond to that. There wasn’t any good reply either. He didn’t know the whole problem – the main concept of it – only some kind of tiny details, but it wasn’t enough to put together the full picture. What he would do in her place - trying to help and being unable to? Probably cry too.

“I’m sorry I’m pushing it onto you… it’s not your problem…”

Jack one more time put his hand around her, gathering the pieces of her in a hug.

“I know it isn’t, but I still want to help.” He whispered, looking at the wall in front of them.

Heather chuckled, but there was something menacing in that.

“Why…?”

“Because I’m your friend?” Jack lifted his eyebrow, even though he knew Heather couldn’t see him.

The black haired girl fidgeted and moved an inch away.

“Do you really mean it?”

“Of course I do. Just because we don’t hang out a lot lately, it doesn’t mean you’re not my friend.”

“Hiccup won’t be mad at that?”

And now it was Jack time to laugh. Seriously… Hiccup? Mad, because Jack was spending time with someone else? Pfff, he couldn’t even imagine the smaller teen even thinking about such thing. Hiccup would be all over thinking about some experiment about detecting chlorides, not about Jack hanging out with some friend.

They both had their own lives. Of course, Hiccup became suddenly an important part of Jack’s life (and hopefully the other way around too), but all parts of Jack’s life were important. Heather too.

“No, why should he?” Jack asked, after his laughter died down. It wasn’t too loud or powerful, but it was there and he hoped he didn’t offend Heather by laughing.

“You know… because you’re together and all. And because you know, it’s me…” Heather mumbled hesitantly.

Was she asking if Hiccup was angry, because Jack was friends with someone who has or had a crush on him? Then the answer was definitely:

“No, no, no, no, of course he won’t be mad.” Like, really, Hiccup would probably glare or maybe even hit someone who would just think about that. “He is very understanding guy. He has his own friends and I have my own and we are allowed to see them whenever we want.” That was half of the truth, because they weren’t actually dating. But if Jack was dating, then he would totally agree for Hiccup to see anyone whenever he wants to. And for what he knew the smaller teen – some small fairy behind his ear told him that Hiccup thought the same.

“He sounds like a really good guy.” The girl’s lips twitched. “You’re lucky to have him.”

The second sentence sounded definitely odd – the tone of it was lowered, kind of sad, melancholic, mixed with some bitter-sweet powder, yet sprinkled with happiness. It was bizarre.

“Yeah, maybe I really am.”

What was Heather thinking? Was she mad at Jack for picking Hiccup over her? No, it didn’t look actually like that. Heather took the news quite… calmly. But it all was an image everyone could see. Something Heather chose to show to the world outside. Maybe deep down inside she was broken, devastated and empty because of it?

Jack cringed only thinking about that.

Maybe she was angry at Jack for taking Hiccup away from her brother? She definitely didn’t know what was happening between Hiccup and Dagur. Perhaps she looked at it as a taken chance for a happy life for her sibling? Maybe she thought that Jack destroyed chances for a good relationship for her brother and Hiccup?

Life was difficult. When you think you have something right, it always shows you that you’re wrong.

Jack shook his head. Thinking like that won’t help him. Won’t help Heather. Won’t help anyone now.

“Did something happen in your life that could make Dagur act like that?” Jack asked instead, masking all bad thoughts and trying to move back to the right tracks.

Heather blinked, but then slowly shook her head. She moved away completely and now was half-facing Jack.

“No… at least I don’t think so… I mean, I think he would tell me…”

“Different approach then…” Jack put his hands on his knees. “Okay, so what do you think could have happened to make him act like that?”

“I-I don’t know… maybe he fell out with his best friend o-or Hiccup?” Heather looked at him.

Jack had no willingness to tell her the truth, so he remained silent. He highly doubted Dagur had bad mood, because he had argued with Hiccup. Or maybe the smaller teen really had done something? Hiccup wasn’t a person to do something bad intentionally, but by mistake…

Jack needed to ask him about it. Somehow.

“Okay, that could be it… but maybe something else… something that could really piss him off instantly?”

Heather stared at him and blinked once, then her eyes filled with some kind of revelation. Her bottom lip trembled, similar to a boat in a storm, so she bit into it hard, hanging her head down.

Her next words were quiet, almost a whisper. Maybe it was just her thought, not meant to be vocalized, yet Jack heard it.

“Our father…”

And he suddenly felt very bad for hearing it. Like only these two words represented a whole conversation – not meant to be heard, a secret, shared only by Dagur and Heather. They never really had talked about families, so Jack had no idea what these two words meant.

Jack wasn’t sure whether he should speak more or not, however he decided he couldn’t leave this topic unfinished.

“Maybe you should talk with Dagur about him then? It’s worth a try… and if it doesn’t work, we will think later about it.” Jack said.

The black haired girl looked up at him and then nodded, taking a deep breath.

“Yeah, you’re right. I should do it…” Her voice was now more rigid and louder. Like it was stronger only by having some kind of a goal. Maybe it really was just what she needed – a direction to follow. “But after he’ll return from work.”

Jack grinned.

“Sounds good for me.”

Heather then tried to smile back at Jack, but it came out a little crooked. However he felt proud, because she even tried. After that, without a warning, she stood up, brushed her knees, corrected the skirt and then straightened her beige coat. The skin near her eyes was tinted with black spots due to smeared mascara, but with one quick movement of the still wet tissue she more over cleaned it. Women were scary…

Jack also stood up. His legs were trembling a little.

Heather glanced up at him and then quickly hung her head down. She started to play with the zip fastener from her bag.

“I’m sorry for you know… this…” She finally said, sneaking a peek at him from behind her ebony, dense fringe.

Jack waved his hand, showing that he didn’t mind. It wasn’t much anyway. Everyone needs help sometimes.

It was the first time he saw Heather crying. She was strong woman, holding her head high and knowing what she wanted, so seeing her suddenly so vulnerable, so small… so wrecked, made him think just how much she was hiding from the world. But don’t all people do that? No matter how hard you’re trying to be with someone, there are some things people refuse to show. Is it a good thing to keep it all caged inside?

“Don’t worry. It wasn’t a problem.” It really wasn’t. So what? He stayed for few more minutes after school to help someone. It was worth it. It always was. “Good to be any help.”

The second smile was better, with the tiny relieve beaming from the turned upwards lips’ corners.

“I really appreciate it. I mean it.” She then took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. “My face probably looks like a disaster now.”

Jack chuckled.

“It isn’t so bad, if you ask me.”

Heather punched his arm lightly. The touch barely lingered there, but it was the movement that counted, not the force, as it was a weirdly positive sign.

“Shut up, you probably tell that to every girl with smeared mascara.”

Jack decided to roll with it a little bit.

“Yet you still look the loveliest of them all.”

Heather chuckled weakly. The small amount of the strong attitude was back. It wasn’t pretty visible, however Jack could feel it in the atmosphere around her. And this was what mattered right now.

“Hiccup sure is lucky to have someone like you by his side.”

And suddenly there was a clenching pain running through his stomach. Then it felt like someone dropped hundred kilos of bricks on it and stepped gracefully at the top, dancing Quick Step. The hidden message was there, resonating in the air, in Jack’s ears, in Jack’s heart and it hurt.

_I wish I could have someone like you_ – it was written all over her face, but the pain was oddly mixed with something warm. Like Heather was happy for him, for Hiccup, for them and yet it pained her to look at them. Jack instantly felt really, really terrible. Could he ever tell her the truth? Would it destroy her? Jack didn’t want to see her any more vulnerable, broken like today, like a gorgeous music box with one cracked gear, but it was the most important piece for the whole machinery to work.

Heather was amazing. She definitely would find someone good for her, someone who would be able to lift her spirit, who would be with her through the bad and good times, someone who would love her just as much as she needed. Jack wasn’t this person.

But when the time would come, he would share the truth. Now he didn’t say anything more in this topic.

“Shall we finally leave this institution of misery?” He asked instead, trying to not let his smile falter.

“Definitely.”

* * *

There wasn’t much to do during the weekend. Most people went out to buy Christmas’ presents, so Jack had no plans. Well, that was wrong. North would definitely drag him tomorrow to buy groceries for upcoming holidays. There was less than a week left anyway.

Coming to this, there was this one very important matter on his head. Presents. He knew Emma wanted to get Crystal Growing Kit (she wanted it since this summer, after their trip to some cave), North was totally content with new Christmas’ sweater (the last one with a snowman got a hole under an arm), Tooth needed accessories for embroidery (because most of her needles were broken), Aster simply told Jack to buy him a book (he even told him the title) and both he and Emma were planning to buy something for their mother when she would be back (hopefully soon). So this was okay, Jack liked to know what he had to buy. He also hinted few gifts which people could buy him. Emma had yelled at him when he had said for like twelfth time in her presence that he needed a shirt with _Skillet_ logo.

It was sad that their mother couldn’t come back for Christmas, but they all understood it. The research group can’t simply go back home for holidays and leave everything in the Antarctica. No matter how much they and their family wanted it. However she had told them that she will definitely call them on Christmas’ Eve. Both Emma and Jack held onto this promise. Tara* wasn’t a person who was breaking her promises.

Jack looked up at the ceiling with his hands crossed under his head. The low hum of carols was coming from downstairs, where North was doing something in the kitchen. Christmas was the only time Jack liked to allow his father to make food for them.

So the topic of presents wasn’t that bad. He had his family, his closest friends and the ones not so close crossed from the list. Some presents were actually already hidden inside his wardrobe.

But there was one problem. One giant (or actually maybe not big, but very small) problem. Hiccup.

They hadn’t really talked about presents. They had spoken about plans for Christmas, but the topic of gifts never swam to the surface, no matter how many times Jack wanted for the auburn haired boy to start it. But he never did.

Should Jack ask very straightforward about it? Or maybe give him a surprise present? But the last surprise didn’t come out too good (Aster had to cancel). But what if he give Hiccup present and the boy won’t give him anything in return? Jack had no problems with not receiving any gift, but he could see in his imagination this saddened look on the smaller teen’s face and his whining voice _‘I-I didn’t get you anything…’_. And then Hiccup would probably feel guilty. Nu-huh, Jack didn’t want that. But if Hiccup buy him something and Jack doesn’t, then Jack will be the one feeling bad. However he really wanted to see those emerald, gleaming, surprised eyes widening as he would stare at the wrapped present.

You know what they say – third time’s a charm and this was only a second try. So surprise it is!

His phone buzzed.

Jack reached with his hand to the night stand, not looking, but trying to catch his phone. His twisted hand searched for the device, however it accidentally brushed something different. Jack turned around and looked up at the furniture. Hiccup’s copy of _1984_ was laying there, untouched. It was almost a full week since he had got it… For how long he can have it? It looked like the auburn haired boy really liked this book, so maybe he was reading it from time to time. Yet he didn’t announce any commissioning date. But keeping something for too long wasn’t nice too.

With a groan, Jack reached for the book and also phone. First he responded on the phone. Hiccup still didn’t answer his last message and Jack already sent three of them. He was kind of bored, okay? Everyone was doing something for Christmas’ – buying presents, decorating, finishing their homework and Jackson Overland was simply bored.

To this point he was willing to read something.

He liked to read, but mostly fantasy books. He had read _The Lord of the Rings_ trilogy in five days, so no thick and heavy book was a problem for him. But _1984_ wasn’t nor large, nor massive. It was… average. But from what the smaller teen had told him, it definitely wasn’t fantasy.

But did he have something better to do? No, definitely not.

With a loud groan mixed with a huff, he laid more comfortably on his bed, propped his head on the pillow and opened the book. He hoped that it wouldn’t be so bad.

* * *

The best part about upcoming holidays was definitely the atmosphere. The happy mood was vibrating in the air in the whole Burgess, transmitting energy to the people – an invisible reaction, but the effects were big and impressive. He liked this time of the year.

They will be spending the Christmas’ Eve at Stoick’s brother’s house. His father had too much work in his company to care for doing some fancy dinner and surprisingly Jorgensons didn’t mind. They were already doing it for five years straight, so it kind of became their tradition.

In the end the only thing in Haddocks’ house reminding them of the upcoming holiday was small Christmas’ tree standing in the corner of the living room. Some people could say that it was almost a sad view, but for Hiccup it was enough (especially because he was always the one taking off all decorations). Not to mention, he got quite attached to the artificial tree which was their Christmas’ Guardian for the last seven years.

Hiccup and Stoick decorated the tree on Saturday morning. Then his father left to buy groceries and to try not to die in the crowd (how Stoick nicely phrased it), so the teen was left alone in the house with no plans whatsoever. Almost all presents were already laying hidden under his bed – Hiccup liked to do his shopping early through the internet.

So he decided to work on his project for the contest. The blueprints this time were coming quite nicely and Hiccup decided he liked the results. He was planning to buy parts at the after Christmas’ sale to save some money. It was a small device, looking similar to thermometer, that was supposed to be stuck into ground of house plants. It would be telling then if the water, sun light level and earth’s pH were enough and suitable for the plant.

The participants had time till spring, so there was no hurry.

He was listening to some movie soundtrack on his headphones whe he heard a sound of a new message on Skype. At first he ignored it, thinking maybe Ruff or Tuff were trying to get to him (because both Fishlegs and Astrid were out) – which usually meant nothing important. If they were in a hurry, they would call. So he moved the ruler down and drew few more lines, before he finally looked up at the Skype chat.

He saw Jack’s name blinking furiously after he had moved the cursor to the icon on the taskbar.

Weird. Jack usually used phone, not Skype. It was actually Hiccup who kind of forced the teen to use it.

The auburn haired teen opened the tab and looked at the message.

_I really hate you right now…_

Wait, what? Hiccup stared at the letters and stared and stared, but they didn’t move nor twitched, nor changed. They were steady, hard and merciless, like fixed parameter, to this point Hiccup though he was dreaming. Because this couldn’t be reality, right?

With very, very heavy heart (that felt like it suddenly turned into block of osmium or iridium*, which was illogical, because he would probably very quickly die, if that situation did occur), he maneuvered his hands above the keyboard, slowly pushing the right buttons.

_Jack, everything’s alright?_

Of course it wasn’t, but Hiccup needed to somehow start the conversation. Did Jack really write it? Was it his weird way of bickering? But Hiccup was used to their different, strange, but kind of sweet type of teasing (no matter how odd it sounded). Did he do something? Maybe Jack was mad that Hiccup didn’t answer his last message on the phone?

The boy reached and grabbed his device, laying somewhere behind his laptop. He unlocked the screen to find out he had zero new messages. He actually was the last one who replied in their conversation.

What was going on? Did he seriously make Jack angry somehow?

His eyes wandered slowly to the laptop’s screen, where Jack was slowly responding.

_It’s your fault._

_How could you do this to me?_

_I trusted you._

Please – amazing Kleitmant and Dement* – tell him that he is sleeping! That this wasn’t reality. But the cold touch of the buttons beneath his fingertips told him that this was real life.

But no, Hiccup needed to clear this misunderstanding somehow (because it must be a misunderstanding, he never would do anything so terrible to make Jack act like that). So even though his hands were shaking (similar to the first time he had poured very concentrated sulfuric acid into the test-tube under the fume hood), heart was beating like crazy and breath was shattered into small gasps, he somehow was able to reply.

_What did I do?_

Awaiting the reply was one of the worst moments of the last month. Did he say something? Had Jack acted weird lately and Hiccup didn’t notice it? Maybe the auburn haired teen was supposed to do something and he forgot?

Toothless jumped onto his lap, looking up at him and purring very loudly. Hiccup’s wet of sweat palm landed on cat’s head, but he didn’t move away, even though he looked displeased.

Then Jack finally replied.

_You lent me that fucking book! How could you!!!_ _(_ _≧_ _Д_ _≦_ _)  Don’t you know I have a delicate heart?!_ _(ノД`)・゜・。_

Oh… oh! So this fuss was all about _1984_ which Hiccup had lent to Jack. But this meant that Jack must have already read it? But only a week passed since then. Hiccup didn’t think the teen would touch it for a month, but he actually did.

And the consequences were… well, disastrous.

Hiccup sighed heavily, feeling the tremor still flowing in his body.

_So I assume you’ve read it?_

_I did! And it was terrible! I hate it._

_I hate this book, I hate the ending!_

This even put a small, hesitant smirk on the boy’s face.

_But it is very good book._

_But for what price? Too fricking high!!_

_Now I’m sad and it’s all your fault! D:_

Hiccup remembered well the first moments after finishing _1984_. The devastation had  roamed freely around his body, destroying every spark of positive emotion for at least four hours. He had spent that time laying on his bed and staring at the ceiling, with no higher purpose. Back then, he hadn’t even known he would ever have a purpose.

There are books which drug and suck you into reading. There are books, that even though are bad, you just have to read. There are books which are so terrible, that you leave them after reading few chapters. There are books that are neutral, not good and not bad. And there is also _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ – that is well… astonishing and pernicious. You love it and hate both in the same time.

_Need something sweet to lift up your mood? C:_

It was supposed to be a joke. A small tease, mixed with a pinch of compassion and sympathy, because he knew what Jack was going through. But nothing more.

Yet, the answer was nothing like he expected it to be.

_Yeah, buy me a chocolate… and be fast!_

_I don’t think I can handle it alone right now ):_

Hiccup stared at the message and stared and stared. Did Jack expect him to go like in this very moment?

_Huh, but like… right now?_

_Uh duuh? It’s your fault that I feel_

_like shit,  so you have to take_

_responsibility for your actions : <_

Well, when Jack put it like that, then he kind of was right. Damn it.

Hiccup stared at his project. He made quite big progress today and during the last week, so it wasn’t holding him back definitely. Not to mention, he had no plans for today or tomorrow. Plus he could also ask Jack about present – not straightforward, definitely not, but some hints would be nice.

But ugh… he didn’t want to move right now…

“What should I do, Toothless?” Hiccup looked down at the cat laying in his lap.

Toothless lifted his head at him and blinked. Then he took a deep breath while narrowing his eyes. It looked like he was sighing.

Toothless was right, it was Hiccup’s fault. And he kind of wanted to see Jack right now… But only to see what kind of imprint the book left on him! Yeah, that was definitely the main reason. Totally…

Hiccup laughed emotionlessly, what was followed a disapproving look from his cat.

_I’ll be there in thirty to forty minutes .__._

_I’m waiting then ∩˙_ _▿_ _˙∩_

* * *

As Hiccup promised, he was in front of Jack’s door thirty six minutes later with a chocolate in his pocket.

The wind outside was nipping on his nose, so he had to cover it with very thick scarf, which in the end he had to loosen up while walking up the steps to the front door. To say that the house was vibrating with energy would be a misunderstanding, because the house looked simply alive. The colorful, bright lights were hanging everywhere, hugging every window frame and every gutter. The crimson, emerald and golden chains were frosted with artificial snow, waiting to be covered with the real one, and hanging under the roof. Near the door stood a plastic snowman and Santa, waving their hands at every person walking by – Oh, and they were wishing everyone a Merry Christmas in their artificial, synthetic voice. This was scary. It was the worst horror stories coming to life.

Hiccup gulped down the saliva and squinted his eyes, as it was hard to look at the bright doors. The wreath was hanging proudly at his eye level, covering the peep-hole. Was it even safe?

His hand floated for few seconds in the air, before his eyes were able to localize the doorbell, hidden under the golden chain. The sound of it echoed around the house.

While waiting, Hiccup glanced at the driveway, remembering suddenly the conversation he had with Aster. He didn’t see any car, not to mention the garage door was closed, so he couldn’t say for sure that North was out.

He didn’t even hear footsteps, before the door flung open, scaring him. Hiccup lamely yelped and jumped an inch up, before he looked at the entrance where smiling Emma was staring at him. She was wearing a fluffy, brown sweater, hanging near her knees, with a reindeer on the front.

“Oh, hey Hiccup. I didn’t know you were coming. I mean I did know, but I was informed about it only five minutes ago.” Her voice was urgent, high and very warm, which made Hiccup think she had an overdose of something inside her blood. Maybe too much sugar or Christmas’ atmosphere.

“No worries, I was also informed about it forty minutes ago.” Hiccup slowly walked inside.

The girl quickly closed the door after him, locking it. Then she turned around and leaned on the wall, staring as he was taking off his shoes. She was smacking her lips, like she was holding some kind of candy between her teeth. Did she sneak into Christmas’ supplies? From what Jack had told him North was buying and baking quite many sweets for the upcoming holiday.

“You know what’s wrong with my bro? Are you here to lift his mood up?”

With a loud huff, Hiccup got rid of his high boots and left them near the shoe cabinet. He then quickly took of his jacket and hung it on a hook.

“I may or may not know what is wrong with Jack.” He finally said, turning to the small girl. “Unfortunately most of it is my fault.”

The brown haired girl opened her mouth. Indeed yes, Hiccup could see a green candy laying on her now colored tongue.

“Did you argue about something?” She asked.

Hiccup was taken aback.

“What? No, no, we didn’t. What made you think that?”

Emma shrugged. Her mouth made a loud squelching sound while she sucked on her candy, furrowing her eyebrows. She moved past him to the living room, where she grabbed a bowl full of colorful candies.

“Well, he was sitting in his room and reading with this very serious look on his face earlier and he didn’t even want to play with me on Playstation. The last time he acted like that, he got into heavy argument with Bunny.”

Aster? Hiccup couldn’t really imagine Jack and Aster arguing about anything. Or more like he never had seen or even heard about them being in conflict with each other. But Emma knew probably more about them than few gossipers around the school.

Hiccup hummed in response.

“No, I can assure you that we didn’t fight.”

“Oh…” She blinked. Another candy was devoured by her. “I’m glad then. So what did you do?”

“I made him read one of the most depressing books in the whole word.” Wow, when he said it out loud it didn’t sound too good actually. He nervously massaged his arm, glancing at Emma, waiting for her reply.

But she only grinned at him.

“Neat. I like that.”

And in this very moment Hiccup had to agree that Emma Overland was simply evil and caring both in the same time. She could show her most gentle side in one second, to reveal her demons in the other. No, definitely it wasn’t a good idea to get on her bad side. But till now it looked like she kind of liked Hiccup.

“Want a candy?” The bowl was now showed to him.

Hiccup didn’t really want to eat anything sweet right now, but he decided to take one piece. Better to not irritate predator on its own territory.

“Thanks. Jack is in his room?”

“Yep, as always.”

With a small nod and a smile, Hiccup turned around and moved to the stairs, directing him to the upper floor. Emma jumped back on the sofa, probably returning to watching whatever was on the TV (which Hiccup didn’t notice was on until now). Upstairs the sound from the TV wasn’t so loud.

The auburn haired teen slowly walked to the door at the end of hallway, where Jack’s room was. With a loud sigh, he lifted his hand and knocked on the door.

“Come in…” Came the dulled reply from the inside after a second.

The handle was cold beneath his palm, as he pushed it down and entered the room. His eyes instantly landed on the bed, with bright blue quilt spread over – or to be more precise his eyes landed on Jack lying face down on it, unmoving. Almost like a corpse. Good that Hiccup didn’t smell anything. That would be morbid.

Hiccup slowly closed the door after him and stood inside with the silence hanging around him, like dark matter in cosmos. Even breathing was a little more difficult now.

“Uhm…” He started, but found no more words. He opened and closed his mouth few times, like he wanted to taste the warm air inside the room. He finally succeeded on the fourth try. “Jack, how are you feeling?”

The answer was muffled.

“Bad.”

“Oh, okay…” Very smart. Hiccup took a deep breath and moved to the bed to sit casually on it, near Jack’s hip. “I got dark chocolate for you. It can boost up the production of endorphins in your body…”

“And what does it mean?” Jack shuffled on the bed, but didn’t lift his head.

“That it can lift up your mood a little.”

With a groan, the taller teen hoisted himself up from his lying down position. He turned around and sat cross-legged in front of Hiccup. And ugh… even his face looked miserable, like he wanted to cry, but didn’t, both in the same time. Maybe lending this book wasn’t a good idea. Jack was a very caring person, so he definitely took it very, very personally.

Hiccup took out the chocolate from his pocket.

“Here, have a bite.”

Jack took the present and unwrapped it. His eyes were hidden behind the curtain made from his white fringe, now hanging lamely in front of him. His hair was disheveled, standing in every direction, like he was electrocuted. Thin fingers worked on breaking the chocolate into small, cubic pieces. Jack took one, nibbled on it and then moved the chocolate to Hiccup. He also took one piece, not because he was hungry, but well… it was just a nice thing to do.

They ate the sweet desert in silence, with accompaniment of a short, crunching sound whenever they were taking a bite.

With nothing better to do, Hiccup started to look around the room. Of course, back few weeks ago he also was staring at the decorations in Jack’s room, but then he had been more interested in Jack passing the test than what he had in his room. Besides, it might give him an idea of what to buy for Christmas. The first thing that was attracting attention were definitely piles of games standing on the shelves near the wardrobe. Some titles Hiccup knew and some not. He wondered if Jack actually finished all of them. But now he gladly could scratch out game as an idea for present. There was too high chance of the taller teen playing it for Hiccup to consider it. Comics next to games weren’t helping too, because from his position Hiccup couldn’t even see their titles.

Books on the lower shelf held his gaze a little bit longer. It wasn’t very big collection, maybe around twelve or so books. Jack had told him that he was only reading fantasy ones. So that could be a good idea, however Hiccup still wasn’t so sure about it.

Hiccup’s eyes circled around the room, similar to a satellite on its orbit, looking at every poster of a game and band hanging in different places on the wall. Coming to this, Jack sometimes wore shirts with band’s logos. They suited him, but Hiccup couldn’t remember seeing Jack wearing them in school. He wore them usually in his house or when they were going out. Maybe they were kept for special occasions?

His cunning eyes stopped few times on small souvenirs standing on the nightstand and on the window sill, together with few plants. Oh yeah – gardening – the secret hobby of famous Jackson Overland. He never really asked the boy about it. Should he even do it or not show that he knew about it?

He finally looked at the desk, stained with dozens of papers scattered around. How did the boy even know where was his mouse in this mess? The pin board above it was filled with photos of smiling people, looking back at him with bright, warm eyes.

Jack was still munching onto chocolate when Hiccup looked back, but now his shoulder weren’t as hunched as earlier.

“Are you feeling better now?”

Jack’s head nodded in agreement, but only after another piece of chocolate he finally answered.

“Yeah, more over.” Then he sucked in a deep breath and finally lifted his face. And wow, he looked like he was on the verge of crying. “I simply can’t believe it!”

“What? The ending? The situation? The author?”

“Everything!” Now, Jack took a giant bite from the rest of the chocolate, like a wild animal. “I mean, it’s fucked up! That reality, these people! How can they even act like that?” He threw his hands in the air, but they fell down and palms hid between the mighty white strands of Jack’s hair. “Ugh, I hate it. I just want to forget about it…” He sighed heavily, slumping and laying back on the bed, but now facing the ceiling.

Hiccup moved closer.

“The magic of good books.”

Jack groaned, holding his hands in the air and making choking movements with them. But after five seconds he became bored of it or too tired, because his hands landed on his chest.

“Never lend me more of yours ‘good books’ then.” Jack said, turning his head and glancing at him, frowning along the way.

Hiccup chuckled, but he covered his mouth quickly.

“But I have quite many titles on my list.”

“Don’t do it, seriously…”

Yeah, maybe it wasn’t a good idea. Jack looked totally devastated after only one. What would he do, if he read _The Hunchback of Notre-Dame_ – the original book – and compare it with the animation? After a second, this was totally bad idea, Jack would probably start crying. Almost as bad idea as pouring water into very concentrated acid* - Hiccup actually knew some people who learned this the painful way.

“I don’t promise anything, although I know some good-good books.”

“I think I don’t wanna read for another week or month or year or so anything you plan to recommend me.”

This was his chance.

“Come on, don’t be like that. What If I want to buy you a book as a present?” Trying to sound normal was one of the hardest things Hiccup had to do. The words left his mouth unnaturally mingled. He spoke using his voice, however he had a feeling he sounded like totally different person. And above all, he felt like big, bold words ‘tell me what you want to get for Christmas’ were written all over his face.

“Then buy a fantasy one! _Canavan! Sapkowski! Pratchett!*_ ” The fish swallowed the bait surprisingly, not even waiting a second to reply. Besides, the white haired teen didn’t even look at him while speaking. That was a relief. “Or some cooking books!” Okay, wow, that was a surprise. But when Jack mentioned it, few ideas automatically popped inside Hiccup’s head. “I will be even happy, if you give me a stick for a present.”

Jack was a great cook (Hiccup found out while he had to eat dinner here for few days straight while preparing Jack for the Math test), so no wonder he wanted to try new things. But a stick?

However Aster had said Jack was interested in gardening. So maybe he really would be happy after receiving maybe not stick, but living plant.

“Okay, MasterChef, I’ll keep that in mind.” Oh, he will. When he’ll return home, he has to order few things immediately with the fastest shipping possible. The Christmas Eve was next week, so there wasn’t much time.

“How about you?”

“Huh?” The smaller teen glanced down.

Jack was now staring back at him, with his look drilling holes inside his face. He looked like he was keen on knowing the answer.

What Hiccup wanted as a present? Well, that was a tough question, because he simply didn’t need anything right now. He had all books, games (pc, board or card ones), he had every equipment needed for his additional science labs (maybe he should replace his glasses, but it wasn’t very urgent), he got clothes and he had amazing and caring friends. Now he even had a calm live. What more there was to aspire for?

“I don’t want anything.” He finally said.

Jack furrowed his eyebrows and pouted.

“Don’t give me that!”

“But seriously, I can’t think of a simple thing I currently want.”

Jack made a sad face, turning his usual smile upside down very theatrically.

“But there must be something.” He whined, gluing his pleading eyes to him.

Why was he so persistent? It wasn’t like it was very important or anything like that. Hiccup kind of didn’t like this idea of receiving presents. Giving was okay, but receiving – ugh, he hated that feeling. He was always feeling bad whenever someone used his or her money on him, especially when he knew that it could be used more wisely.

“But there isn’t…” And the things he wanted couldn’t be bought using money, not that he planned to, if those things were available on Ebay.

“Hiccup… Hic… Hicadude… Hamish…” With every word Jack was moving closer and closer. “Mister Nerd…” At this Hiccup lifted his eyebrow, eyeing Jack suspiciously. “Our Dark Lord?”

At that Hiccup simply had to laugh. The Dark Lord – well, he could get used to it actually. Maybe he should somehow change his name in Jack’s phone when he won’t be looking?

“Surprise me.” Hiccup answered, crossing arms on his chest.

Jack frowned. A small field of wrinkles appeared on his forehead and eyes darted to the ground (or to me bore precise to the blue quilt beneath them). He looked like a switching off machine - where every cord, every metal joint, every relay team was slowly losing power.

“The last surprise didn’t come out too well…” He whisper softly.

What surprise? Did he mean the cinema? But… Hiccup had fun. Didn’t Jack have fun? But he had looked like he had enjoyed himself back then. They had talked and walked and laughed and…

Hiccup’s mood instantly dropped down – similar to a iodine clock reaction, turning dark few seconds after hearing those words.

“What surprise?” Hiccup really wanted to sound normal, but his voice swayed at the end, breaking the last syllable in half.

Jack lifted his head quickly and put smile back on.

“N-nothing. You didn’t hear anything.”

What? So it wasn’t about their meeting last weekend? Because if it was, then Jack would probably tell him about it. Or at least Hiccup though Jack would do that.

“Yeah, sure.” The smaller teen wasn’t convinced, but somehow this small stutter – this hidden part of the topic – made him feel a little better.

“Totally, it was the wind.” Jack convinced.

Very smooth.

“Jack, the window is closed…” Hiccup pointed with his thumb at the wall.

Jack turned around to stare at the window, which indeed was closed.

“Oh…”

He gaped at it for few seconds, like by only looking at it he would be able to pry it open. But it remained as closed as it was when Hiccup had first entered.

“Okay, you win this one.”

Hiccup had a feeling that he was winning a lot lately, but he decided to not point that out.

“So after your magical return to the world of living, can you tell me why does your house look like one giant Christmas’ exposition?” This had picked Hiccup interest quite some time ago, when he had found out that the only cups Overlands had in their home were the Christmas’ ones.

“It’s because of North.” Jack stated.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. It was something he did very often, most of the times around Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout – the doom trio – but Jack was quickly moving close to their first place on the list.

“Elaborate?” Hiccup’s fingers played with one thread protruding from the quilt.

“Well you’ve seen him. What is the first word that is coming to your mind after seeing him?” Jack one more time sat up and crossed his legs, keeping his hands on the ankles and swinging back and forward. A human swing.

Hiccup knew the answer immediately.

“Big.” He stated, smiling proudly and puffing his chest.

And it was the truth. When he first had walked inside the kitchen and had seen Jack’s father, he was taken aback by the similarities to his father. They were almost the same in size in all three dimensions. Yet when his father was gruff and harsh, North was sweet and warm like a melting crystal.

Jack shook his head with a small grin on his lips.

“No… I mean you’re correct, but this isn’t what I meant. So you have a second chance.” He swayed to the front and almost collided with Hiccup’s arm. “He doesn’t remind you of anyone?”

The answer was as simple as the first one, but something was telling Hiccup that it wasn’t the correct one. Yet, he had no other option than to say it out loud.

“Erm, he kind of remind me of my father, but I don’t see where it all connects.” He murmured hesitantly, knowing after the first word that it wasn’t what Jack wanted.

And indeed the taller teen sighed heavily.

“You’re one of a kind, Hiccup.” Jack smiled reassuringly, showing that he meant nothing bad by it. “You lost your inner child though… I’ll give you one last chance. But you have to guess on your own.”

Huh boy, Hiccup suddenly felt stressed. This wasn’t some kind of test, so why it was suddenly so important to his brain.

Hiccup gulped down saliva. He tugged harder on the thread and completed all facts in his head, sorting them out and arranging in correct places. Christmas’ decorations and cups – they were related to North, who was enormous, bulky, had a long, white beard, big belly and joyful laughter which could break even the hardest shells formed around frozen hearts. Who could that be? Who was bringing happiness and joy during Christmas?

Oh gosh, the answer was so obvious Hiccup had to smack himself in the face.

Jack laughter echoed in the room.

“So?”

It was so clear, so logical like solving the separable first-order ordinary differential equations*. Hiccup felt totally ashamed of his previous two tries.

“Santa Claus…” He murmured, feeling the blood flowing to his face and making him blush. This was embarrassing.

“Yes, exactly! And not only he looks like Santa, but he also acts like one. So don’t be surprised, if you see him parading in Santa’s costume around the town.” Then Jack tilted his face to the right. “Took you long enough to guess that right.”

“Shut up. He really looks like my father.” Hiccup grunted.

“Well, I’ve never seen your father, so I have to believe you.”

Oh yeah, Jack didn’t even see Hiccup’s own room. Every time they had met it was here and not over Hiccup.

“You’ll definitely recognize him, if you see him. But I must warn you that we totally don’t look alike.”

“So he doesn’t look like a fishbone.” When Hiccup raised his eyebrow, Jack quickly cleared his throat. “So how does he look like?”

Hiccup patted his chin few times, lifting his head to look at the ceiling. The last time he had described his father was in elementary school and he had a feeling simple ‘big man with a long beard’ wouldn’t be enough for Jack.

“I’m almost one hundred percent sure you must have seen him at least once or twice in your life.” Hiccup started.

Burgess wasn’t nor big nor small city. It had its own Mall, few Middle and High Schools, three to four parks and even its own Railway Station. Their school was located in the suburbs, so the greater part of its students were living in single-family houses, scattered all around two to three kilometers away from the city center. And because of that many people knew each other, if not by name then they recognized definitely most of the faces.

“As you can already imagine, he is around your father size. He also have this very bushy ginger beard. Sometimes he even has few braids there.” Was always describing someone so hard? “His face is melted almost always into this focused yet stern look. And he often has furrowed eyebrows, like he is thinking hard about something.“ Which he often did. “And he usually wear suits around the town…” Was there something more to add? Jack probably didn’t need to know more.

“Well… he doesn’t sound like a fun guy.” The white haired teen concluded.

“He isn’t the most entertaining guy in Burgess, but he had other formidable traits.” Then Hiccup smiled under nose. “And some not as much…”

Jack hummed in reply.

“So I assume you took more after your mother then?”

Hiccup shrugged. He took off his glasses and started to clean them with the hem of his shirt.

“I don’t know. Maybe? Gobber always tells me that I have her eyes, but my character is the mix of both of them.” Then his arms slumped down. “Now when I think about it, it sounds kind of like an insult.”

When Hiccup lifted his face back, Jack was staring at him with puzzled look.

“Who is Gobber?”

Oh, that’s right. He never really told Jack about Gobber. Coming to this, he rarely even talked about himself with Jack. They had only exchanged basic information at their meeting in cafe and nothing more. In the end, Hiccup wasn’t a person who was talking a lot about himself in the end…

“He is our family’s friend and kind of like my godfather and uncle? Actually, I think I spent more time with him as a kid than with my own biological uncle.” It wasn’t Hiccup fault that both he and Snotlout didn’t really get along when they were kids. “How about you? Did you take more after North?”

Jack blinked and swung heavily back, almost falling down from the bed. But with help from spastic movements of his hands and Hiccup grabbing his knee, he returned to his safe position.

“Me? Can’t you see I’m all North?” Jack pointed at himself with both hands, moving them up and down.

Hiccup put his palm near his chin.

“Well, you don’t have a belly and you’re not that tall if you ask me.”

“I’m still taller than you.” Jack boasted with a smirk.

Hiccup huffed loudly.

“Back to the topic, Frost.” He scolded Jack with one look which he hoped was as cold as absolute zero*. However judging by the amusement still present on the white haired teen’s face, Hiccup didn’t quite do a good job.

“Okay, okay.” Jack put both hands in front of him – surrendering, but not really giving up. “And I actually spoke the truth. I mostly look like my father. Maybe my height is after Eris.”

Hiccup blinked, taken aback. Did Jack just call his mother by her name? It wasn’t unusual, but it wasn’t very often Hiccup heard people do that. Even though Jack was sometimes calling his father North, there was something different about this case.

Hiccup had met Jack’s father and sister, but he never really heard anything about mother from either of their mouths. Maybe because he himself was used to a home without a motherly touch to it, he never really paid it much attention. But now, when the topic swam to the surface…

“Is Eris… you mother?”

It sounded awkward, out of place and just… bad. What kind of friend he was, if he didn’t even know Jack’s mother? But this was a good time to change it, fill some of the holes in his data base.

However Jack stopped swinging and for a second – a small, terribly tiny part of it – his eyes got clouded and the everlasting smile faltered. It was quick, it was almost unnoticeable, it wasn’t probably even supposed to seen, but Hiccup saw it.

The hours spent in a laboratory didn’t go in vain.

Yet the grin was quickly back. Jack smiled even wider, like he wanted to cover the small slip, even though he wasn’t probably even conscious of it. Some habits aren’t that easy to change.

“Yep.” He popped the last letter loudly. “But seriously, if you see her, you won’t even tell she is my biological mother.”

“You look so different?”

Hiccup shuffled a little closer.

“Yeah, totally. We kind of like yin and yang. In characters too… I guess.” Jack added after a while.

“What is she doing?”

It felt like Hiccup had to somehow dig for the information. Jack was usually an open person, his mouth was never closed for longer than four seconds (or the time needed for normal person to reply), but now Hiccup had to almost force the taller teen to answer.

“She’s a journalist. Last time I heard from her she was in Greece, making some kind of article about it. But please don’t ask me about what… Something about economy definitely…” Jack’s hand moved to his hair which he tousled. Now his hairstyle was even messier than before, like a foam on an ocean during a storm. “Totally not the thing that stir my interest.” He sighed and then looked back at Hiccup. “So now it’s your turn. What is your Mom doing?”

Hiccup knew Jack didn’t mean anything by that one simple question. He just wanted to redirect the topic, ask some personal information, learn something new about Hiccup, but he did it in the worst way possible.

“Uhh…” Hiccup’s hand fidgeted, as it one more time searched for the thread on the quilt. He quickly found it and circled it around his finger. “Well…” His throat was dry, like that one question drained the whole moisture from it. But he needed to answer honestly. Jack deserved it. Hiccup pushed too far into Jack’s comfort zone, so he had to answer. “For first, she is no longer with us…”

He knew it was going to happen. He searched for correct words to use in this situation, for the best combination to tell the truth, but neither of the options was good.

Jack stopped moving. His eyes widened and mouth hung open, showing a line of his perfect white teeth. But it didn’t last for long, because as quickly as Jack turned into a frozen statue, he also quickly recovered from it.

“Ohh… ugh…” Jack started, but quickly lost his tongue. Now his frantic eyes darted to the side, palm once again landed on the nape of his neck. He often did that whenever he was nervous. “I didn’t mean to… I mean…”

The last thing Hiccup wanted was for Jack to feel bad for something that wasn’t even his fault. Besides, he did nothing bad, he only asked a simple question, which unfortunately was… well, hard to answer.

“No, no, no, don’t worry. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know of course.” Hiccup quickly waved his hands in front of him.

Jack groaned and the same hand from the back of his neck landed on his eyes, which he massaged groggily. Hiccup didn’t expect him to overact like that, but maybe he should have seen it coming. Jack – the worrywart – of course cared for other people wellbeing.

“But it was tactless…“ The older boy murmured, not taking his hand off his face.

“It wasn’t so bad. I just didn’t know how to answer quickly. I’m not used to people asking about her, because all my friends know this story already.” Hiccup said, but when the only reply he got was another loud groan mixed with sigh, he decided to move closer. Just few more inches. It wouldn’t hurt him. Their knees were almost touching. “Jack?”

“I’m sorry…”

Now it was getting frustrating. Jack didn’t do anything bad, but he was acting like he just destroyed some XRF Analyzer*! Was it some kind of side effect? Hiccup didn’t like the last thought.

The pale palm was still covering Jack’s face, so Hiccup caught the white haired teen’s wrist and moved the irritating hand down.

“Jack, you’re overreacting.” Hiccup said softly. “You act like you just insulted my great great grandmother…”

“Am I?” The second part of Hiccup’s sentence was only commented with a small twitch of Jack’s lips.

“Yeah, very.” He pushed Jack’s hand down onto Jack’s knee. When Hiccup felt it trying to move up one more time, he only tightened his grip on it.

Jack hung down his head and then slowly shrugged. The movement was followed by a loud, deep sigh.

“I just don’t want for you to feel bad.”

It was… kind of very sweet. Yet Hiccup felt he was being treated like some kind of expensive machinery… or in Jack’s case endangered type of plant. Maybe it was Jack’s natural reaction to situations like this, but it wasn’t good for him too. He can’t feel bad at every small mistake he makes. This stuff just happens in life and you will cringe and maybe feel terrible, but you have to move forward as quickly as you can.

“Aster was right. No one can beat your level at worrying over someone…” Hiccup titled his head to the side.

“It’s in my blood.” Jack pouted.

“But by worrying over my wellbeing, you destroyed your own.”

A pair of baby blue eyes looked up at him. They stung their small needles of curiosity into Hiccup’s body. The boy was taken aback by the pure surprise peaking from behind the curtain of concern thrown upon them.

“But I prefer for other people to feel good more than me.”

And even thought it was sweet, it was pure, it was kind, it was astonishing in its selfless meaning, Hiccup couldn’t stop the feeling of dread forming inside his stomach. It was beautiful that you could be so devoted, dedicated, faithful to your friend and family, but he was feeling that it was too much.

Hiccup had a feeling that by acting like that Jack wanted desperately to prove something, forgetting about himself in the process. Did no one have ever seen it?

The auburn haired boy swallowed hard. What should he say in response to that? No words wanted to appear in his mind, no coherent sentence wanted to form inside his brain. He felt strangely empty, but the need to say something, to show his point was growing stronger and stronger. But he didn’t know how to project his thoughts to the teen.

Hiccup felt miserable.

“Did my chocolate at least help you?” It was terrible, but it was the only thing Hiccup could muster to say right now.

“Yeah, it did.”

And the worst thing was the fact that Jack was still smiling at him with this cordial smile, which was so honest, it made Hiccup sick. How many times did Jack do something and forgot about himself in the process? How many times did he put someone in front of himself? Probably too many. Hiccup never heard Jack refusing to help someone.

But you can’t live your whole live only agreeing to everything. Hiccup was the perfect example – Jack didn’t have to help Hiccup, but he did and because of that he brought more problems onto himself (guilt was the biggest of them all). Yet the only thing Hiccup did was take, not giving anything in return.

Maybe it was better that he couldn’t voice his thoughts right now. He wasn’t even sure Jack would listen to him in this moment, or maybe he would listen, but wouldn’t understand or even try to. Under the most open person was hidden the hardest to open lock. Jack only hid it very well with his grin and free attitude.

Could Hiccup even do it? Could he change someone way of thinking? It didn’t have to be very big change. He only had to add something to it. He didn’t have to change the whole formula, but maybe he could replace some letters with theirs different equations to form another meaning.

But this wasn’t science. It wasn’t so easy, Hiccup didn’t know why he was even thinking about trying. He had no experience in this matter – actually he was very, very bad at advising people. Or to be more general, he was bad at this whole human interaction topic…

Yet something inside told him, whispered to him, hummed into his ear that he should do it. He wasn’t sure way. Jack needed help, even though he himself didn’t know it and he needed someone who would do it.

“Everything okay?” Jack looked at him. Just for how long did he zone out? Too long, if the teen was asking about his wellbeing. Again.

“Yep, I was just thinking about something.”

“Was it me?” Jack fluttered his eyes at him.

Ugh… on the second though, Hiccup wasn’t so sure about helping Jack.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Frost.” He snarled, finally lifting his hand from Jack’s wrist. Hiccup was glad Jack’s palm didn’t move back to scratch nervously the back of his neck. All this time Hiccup’s palm was laying on Jack’s wrist, preventing him from moving. It was a new record for Hiccup. Should he be happy about it? He kind of really was. He still didn’t like other people touching him – even though he knew it was normal, he somehow came to terms with this weird part of himself. Yet here he was, automatically catching Jack’s hand and kind of holding it for at least five minutes (well, technically it was wrist, but the point was taken).

If Hiccup was in some kind of weird teen book… or worse… some romantic, slow-build fanfiction, then it would mean he was slowly feeling something he shouldn’t be. Gladly, it wasn’t the case! That was a relief!

Nevertheless, it made him feel a little bit better. The topic of their families was dropped suddenly and it didn’t look like either of the sides wanted to talk about it one more time. Maybe some other time, when their relationship wouldn’t be so… thin.

“Oh, I will.” Why Jack even tried to stop smiling, when this stupid grin was still there, now even more wide and playful?

“You’re unbelievable.” Hiccup threw his hands in the air, huffing exasperatedly.

“I will take this beautiful chance and point out that you just kind of admitted to thinking about me.”

Why did he even put up with this guy!?

“Fuck you.” And when Jack was quickly (too quickly!) opening his mouth to add something – something probably not very suave, Hiccup was faster to correct himself. “Jack, no.”

“How do you expect me to not use such golden opportunities, when you literally just give them to me!?” Jack gasped, not tearing his gaze away.

For this, the smaller teen had no intelligent answer. He could only admit that Jack indeed was right and Hiccup was, well… making a lot of mistakes in their conversations. He should have learnt better by spending time with Astrid and the twins, but somehow with Jack it was ten times much worse.

So with a loud sigh, the boy laid down on Jack’s bed. His glasses moved up, so now they were resting almost on his forehead, but he had nor power nor willingness to put them down. Just let them be free.

“Finally, point to me.” Jack said in too happy voice and then laid down right next to Hiccup with a content sigh. His hands moved to the back of his neck, but he gladly only rested his head on them.

The auburn haired teen glanced at his companion. Jack had his eyes closed and he was breathing slowly through his nose. His chest was moving rhythmically up and down, like a never ending monotonic function. Up and down, positive and then negative values of y. Or maybe it looked like a calm ocean with waves rising and falling down under the soft breath of wind. Whatever was the truth here, Jack looked calm, peaceful and a little bit translucent (no matter how weird and illogical that sounded). And by staring at him like that, Hiccup felt something calming inside of him too. Like a weird power, some kind of magnetic field was around Jack, soothing everything in its radius - a human battery recharging and in replace charging everything in its surrounding.

“I think some of my power came back…”

But did it really?

Jack hoisted himself up. His bed howled painfully, when the taller boy turned on it and looked at still laying Hiccup.

“Hungry?”

Hiccup kind of was. He had eaten dinner four hours ago and he was thinking about making himself some slight snack before Jack had written to him.

“Yeah…”

“Great, if you’re cooking something, then do something for me too.”

They both turned their heads quite abruptly to the door which were pried open with smiling face of Emma looking at them through the tiny gap.

“What are you doing there Em?” Jack implored.

Hiccup wasn’t really sure what to think about it. He could only gape with half opened mouth at the girl standing near the doorway, looking totally not ashamed by anything. Or more like suddenly Hiccup was the one to feel embarrassed. But why? They did nothing! He was just talking with Jack on his bed, laying next to each other.

“Well, I was just eavesdropping, hopping that I might get some dirt on you, but I got bored.” The brown haired girl stated, pushing the door and making one step inside, while shrugging her arms. The bowl with definitely less candies was secured under her arm. “You talk only about dark stuff.”

“Emma!” Jack whined and facepalmed himself. “How many times do I have to tell you not to do that? And you’re still doing it.”

“Too many too count!” Came the booming voice of North from the downstairs. Hiccup didn’t even hear the front door opening. When did the man get back?

Jack eyes widened, forming a two giant glass watches. He desperately tried to find something to say, yet in the end he only huffed with shoulders slumping down in defeated manner.

“I’m sorry for them.” Jack said, glancing at Hiccup.

“Well, it looks like everyone in your house is trying to get you embarrassed.” Hiccup observed, darting his head up a little. He might get the last word in this matter. “I think I can get used to it.”

“Hic!”

* * *

Hiccup honestly could get used to it – the atmosphere of the Overlands’ household. It was charming, vivid and striking. He felt like suddenly the whole world was painted in colors he so rarely saw nowadays. But above all, it was welcoming and warm. Everyone here were smiling, chattering lively about something, pointing out funny remarks here and there and joking about themselves.

Compared to Jack’s house, Hiccup’s own home was plain and dark. He never took himself for a giddy type who loved to spend time with people, but the difference was so big that it was like a jump between realities. Maybe it kind of really was.

And, of course, why Hiccup should be surprised by it? – that doofus (Jack) one more time had decided to walk him home, even though Hiccup had told him like twelfth times that he would be okay. But the solid argument that they weren’t living so far away from each other wasn’t the best one in Jack’s opinion. And when Hiccup had said that he is big enough to go home alone it somehow made everything worse, because even Emma (who was supposedly on Hiccup’s side) and North had started giggling at his statement. And seriously, when he and Jack had been near the front door, Hiccup could swear he had heard Emma muttering to herself ‘big, yeah, sure’.

So in the end he allowed Jack to walk him home. It sounded a little better this way.

There was almost no trace of the moody, sad Jack’s that Hiccup had seen when he had entered the house few hours ago. The spell was broken and the usual, giddy Jack was back. And when normal white haired teen was back, the loud and never closing mouth of his was back too.

Hiccup considered having the gloomy Jack back, but only for ten seconds.

“We finished our quest.” Jack said, as he stopped in the middle of the road in front of Hiccup’s house. Maybe not exactly in front, but close enough.

“You mean your quest?” Hiccup snorted, pushing the backpack higher on his shoulder. His hands travelled to his pockets, making a comfy place for them to rest. The unforgiving wind was nipping on his limbs quite painfully. Yet Jack surprisingly looked unfazed by the coldness. Hiccup could say he acted even more lively. “So did you level up or something?”

“Maybe… I’m a gamer, what can you expect from me?”

“Normalness, but I think it could be asking for too much from you.” Hiccup quickly retorted, keeping a small smile on his lips. The air was coming from his mouth in a small, milky puffs. He won’t be surprised, if it starts snowing next week. He needs to check the weather forecast.

“Says who?” Jack looked at him, tilting his head to the side.

“Me. I’m perfectly normal.” Hiccup lifted his head up, staring challengingly at the taller teen, daring to prove otherwise.

And Jack of course did.

“No, no you’re not.” Jack pushed Hiccup’s glasses up. The auburn haired boy didn’t even notice they were barely hanging at the end of his nose. “Normal people don’t know the whole periodic table.”

And of course Jack was pointing that out. Hiccup shouldn’t have shared this information with him, but they were talking about not useful things they had known and it somehow came out.

But Hiccup also had ace up his sleeve.

“Normal people don’t know the names of all Pokémon from the first three generations too.”

Jack’s forehead clouded, as he retrieved his palm back to rest inside the comfy caves of his pockets.

“Touché. I tell you one embarrassing thing and you remind me about it on every step.”

“Not on every, just when you mess with me.” And his knowledge of the periodic table.

Of course, knowing many names of Pokémon wasn’t Jack’s most embarrassing story. For this one Hiccup had to wait, as Jack phrased it earlier. How long? That was still a mystery. They weren’t in a hurry.

“So almost on every step.” Jack said, starring at him with a smirk.

Hiccup only sighed.

“You unbelievable, you know that?”

“I know.” Jack nodded, like he totally expected this reply. Maybe he had already heard it too many times coming from Aster’s or Tooth’s mouth (although Hiccup had hard times imagining the colorful haired girl being mean to anyone)? His blue eyes moved to the window of Hiccup’s living room. “It looks like your Dad is at home.”

Hiccup glanced back and, indeed, there was a luminescent faint glow coming from between curtains. The TV was probably switched on. He quickly checked the time on his wristwatch. There was still few minutes before the curfew.

“Yup, I probably should be going back. I didn’t even tell him I was going out.” Stoick was probably too overjoyed about the idea of his son going out somewhere to care for a phone call or even worrying about him. “So thanks for walking me back and…” Hiccup returned his gaze at Jack when he saw some movement from his side. “… What are you doing?”

Well, that was a little bizarre… Jack was standing there with his arms wide open and smile adsorbed on his face. Like seriously, what was he doing? Asking for some spell to be cast on him? Calling for some goddess? Trying to get a hug? …Oh.

“Don’t I get a prize for finishing my quest?” Jack nudged, waving his palms, like he wanted to encourage Hiccup into moving closer, which definitely didn’t make him want to move even an inch forward.

“Why?” Hiccup questioned, not seeing the higher purpose of doing it. Like seriously, why? Their first hug was a small tease mixed with a show of gratitude - in Jackson’s very strange way of showing affection. And even though Hiccup had to admit that the previous hug wasn’t so bad, he wasn’t keen on repeating it.

“Do you have to question everything?” The white haired teen frowned, but his hands didn’t falter down. So the offer still stood. Great…

“Do you have to hug everything?” Hiccup still had some ways to escape it. At least he hoped he had some chances.

“Not everything, only people close to me.” Then Jack smirked devilishly with eyes glinting in the dark. “Come on, I deserve it after you told me to read that awful book of yours.”

“Didn’t the chocolate do the trick?” Hiccup crossed arms on his chest and moved the weight to his right leg. The cold wind was making him shiver and he had an urge to zip the jacket… however the jacket was already fully zipped.

“No…” Jack answered way too quickly. And after a few second, he added. “Maybe a little.” Then he shook his head. “Come on Hic… don’t be a meanie.”

Hiccup totally didn’t want to do that. What if his father accidentally looks out of the window? How will Hiccup explain it to him? He doesn’t want to lie to his father about his relationship with Jack. Hiccup felt bad he had lied to Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout about it. He didn’t need any more guilt on his shoulders.

Besides, why was Jack insisting on it so hard? This idea still didn’t appeal to him. Hiccup knew Jack would back off, if Hiccup felt pretty uncomfortable. He had done it few times when Hiccup had poked him on different occasions and around different people. He more over got better with Jack touching him (maybe because they weren’t so awkward around each other anymore), but not to this point.

Yet when Jack sent him the saddest puppy eyes he could muster right now, Hiccup felt something inside of him breaking. Damn it. It won’t kill him, right? No bacteria will transfer so quickly. Or maybe Jack was just waiting to prank him somehow. Coming to this, Hiccup lately heard nothing about Jackson Overland’s famous tricks.

No, Jack wasn’t like that.

“Just one hug…” Jack wiggled his eyebrows at him which looked comically, especially combined with this pleading look he was giving. “Don’t leave me hanging. You even said ‘next time’ when I proposed hugging last time?”

Unfortunately, Hiccup had said that.

With a loud, very emotional groan Hiccup made a step forward. He could already feel the headache coming from it, but he brushed it away… for now.

And just as he expected, as soon as he was close enough, Jack’s hands embraced him. Just like last time, he wasn’t holding too strong or too light, so it didn’t look like some kind of a forced thing (even though it kind of was). No, it was delicate and kind hug.

The reality was so different from all those hugs in books and fanfictions. There wasn’t any sudden rush of warmness, there wasn’t any slowed down moment – the time didn’t stop, the world didn’t become quiet and there wasn’t this feeling that they were the only one left on the whole globe – no physics’ laws were broken by this embrace. Hiccup heard the soft rustling of Jack’s shifting jacket, he heard the low hum of Jack’s breath near his head and Jack’s slow beating heart. Not to mention, it wasn’t like Hiccup suddenly stopped feeling cold. On the contrary, the wind was still making his hair stand on his neck, similar to metal particles near the magnet. There wasn’t any invisible barrier separating them from the world. It wasn’t only them, because Hiccup was well aware of everything around him and Jack. But he acknowledged Jack’s presence in front of him more than ever.

However, it wasn’t that bad. Even though he still shivered from time to time, he felt a little bit warmer. Not warmer in this overly dizzy way, but simply warmer – similar to this pleasant feeling you get after drinking a cup of hot cocoa, which definitely fitted Jack.

Hiccup’s hands still lamely hung near his body, but he found his fingers twitching. Should he do something? Did Jack even expect him to do something?

The auburn haired teen wanted to glance at Jack to find some kind of confirmation, but he was unable to move his head. Were you even supposed to move head while hugging?

Well, Jack was right, he did deserve it. It was Hiccup’s fault Jack felt so depressed. Plus… this was the only selfish thing Jack asked from Hiccup. It probably wasn’t even a request in Jack’s mind, because if it was, then Hiccup had a feeling Jack would back away quickly after seeing the uncomfortable look on the boy’s face.

So in the end, Hiccup put his hands on Jack’s back, barely putting any tension on it. But it was some improvement.

“This is so gay…” Hiccup mumbled, standing there, not really moving forward or back.

Hiccup felt Jack trembling from laughter, which soon exited his lips. It felt strange to hear and feel someone laughing so close to him.

“Says who…” Came the low, hushed, yet amused reply. Then another Jack’s chuckle shook Hiccup’s body. “No offence, but you’re as suave as a wooden log.”

Hiccup was well aware of that. No wonder the only admirer he had was Dagur.

Without any more words, Jack moved away, allowing for Hiccup’s hands to fall back down. Jack was standing with his back to the street lamp, so it was hard to see all his face features, but Hiccup had a feeling that he was smiling at him. But this one smile was a little bit different from the usual Jack’s grin.

“See, you’re making progress. You almost hugged me back!” Was he praising Hiccup?

The auburn haired teen sighed and put his palms back in his pockets.

“What? Are you planning to do it more often?”

“Maybe…” Jack answered with a playful tone, shrugging along the way.

Hiccup didn’t expect this answer, nor he really wanted to hear it.

They both heard a buzzing sound coming from Jack’s pocket. The said boy dove his hands in search for the device and then took it out with a yell of victory. Seriously, everything was plain exciting for him. How could he still have so pure and childish soul inside of him? Jack seriously was a modern Peter Pan.

The taller teen scrunched his nose as he read something on the screen. Then he replied quickly and with a loud huff hid his phone away.

“I have to go.” And without waiting for an answer, Jack turned on his heels and ran a few meters. Only then he stopped abruptly and looked back at Hiccup, who still didn’t move from his position. “See you on Monday?”

“Ya, I guess…”

“Cool, g’night! Sleep tight!” And with that Jack stormed away, still waving his hand for a minute or so after turning around.

“Bye!”

Hiccup stared at the silhouette until it became a dot on the horizon, which soon disappeared behind the corner. Only then he finally turned around and walked into his house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s note:  
> Finally! It’s done! Seriously, you don’t even know how long it took me to check this chapter due to all this mumbo-jumbo at my Uni xDDDD. And I must warn you, look out for any organic related matter, because this labs are giving me nightmares!
> 
> And I’m sorry for all mistakes. I’m pretty sure this chapter had a lot of errors, because most of the time I’m checking when I’m super tired after classes. Maybe it will be replaced in the future with checked chapter :3.
> 
> Quick answers:  
> *Jada - Aw yeah! You're amazing for noticing! And well... polish language is sometimes terrible haha xD! But thank youuu <3!
> 
> Time for nerd’s fact:  
> *The weight of osmium and iridium – theoretically osmium is the most dense element. However, according to some measurements iridium is more dense than osmium, so we aren’t sure what is really more dense.  
> *Kleitmant and Dement – they classified sleep into four NonREM stages and REM.  
> *Pouring water into very concentrated acid – this is literally one of the worst things you could do, because there are large amount of heat released while doing so! First you pour water, then acid :3.  
> *Solving the separable first-order ordinary differential equations – you can check it on the internet, but basically it is one of the most logical ways to solve differential equations C:  
> *Absolute zero – OK, -273,15°C or −459.67°F.  
> *XRF Analyzer – Well, the new one aren’t very expensive, but at our Uni we had this pretty old analyzer and well… repairing it wasn’t cheap xDDD.
> 
> And some other facts:  
> *Tara – character from Epic. Seriously, I love her!  
> *Canavan/Sapkowski/Pratchett – they are all authors of fantasy books. I highly recommend Canavan (The Black Magician trilogy is one of my favourite books ever:3). Sapkowski is… well, I don’t really like his books that much. And I never read Pratchett, but my friend told me he is good.
> 
> Some additional comments from me:  
> *Feeling guilty - This part when Jack and Hiccup talk about it may seem urgent... because it is. I totally forgot to put those feelings earlier and I didn't want to miss it, so I added it here =D.
> 
> Hope to see you soon <3!


	7. Raoult's law

**Raoult’s law** – the partial vapor pressure of each component of an ideal mixture of liquids is equal to the vapor pressure of the pure component multiplied by its mole fraction in the mixture.

 

 _Guyzzzz I need ideaaas! (_ _╯_ _°□°_ _）╯_ _︵_ _┻━_ _┻_

_Frost, stop it with the emoticons._

_Shush it Bunny! We have an emergency! D: <_

_What emergency?_

_I dunno what to buy Hiccup for Christmas (_ _⋟_ _﹏_ _⋞_ _)_

_Well, what does he like then :3?_

The last message was from Tooth – she was adding everywhere this face. Only when she was talking about something important she was dropping it. The emoticonless messages were written by Aster.

Jack sighed as he massaged his temples. The meeting with Hiccup didn’t really help him find out what he should buy. And there was almost no time left. Only few days!

_Everything related to science… .___._

_This is very detailed explanation._

_Why do I even bother asking you =3=…_

_Guys, come on :3! Aster, tone it down_

_and Jack, don’t panic, I’m sure we_

_will think about something :3._

Tooth was a blessing – an angel in human body.

They spent another hour on the Facebook chat, discussing what Jack could buy. The usual gifts’ ideas were the first to appear – books, cups, games – it all went down with a single shot from Jack’s side. Then Tooth proposed that Jack should just bake him cookies and well… this was definitely something he could do. But it was missing something (a subtle accent, something which had to be there – only Jack didn’t know exactly what this something was).

Aster, even though he was grumbling all the time, told him to buy Hiccup some laboratory supplies. Like test-tubes or pH indicator papers. And even though it sounded strange to buy something like that for present, it was something which could be used by Hiccup in the future. So it was the idea for future consideration. Hopefully.

There were few other people pestering him on Facebook, with their chats blinking furiously in front of his eyes, but Jack brushed them away for now. Couldn’t they see he had more important matters on his mind now? Like coming up with an idea for his boyfriend’s gift… Well, fake boyfriend’s gift!

God, when he was nervous his brain wasn’t functioning properly. It was a miracle his mind was somehow able to work during exams.

They were sitting at it for like two hours now with not good results. Although Tooth’s idea was becoming more and more appealing. However, he wasn’t sure what to bake actually. Muffins? Shortbread? Tart? Sweet soufflé? And what kind of ingredients should he use? Chocolate, fruits, vanilla?

Couldn’t Hiccup just tell him straightforward what he needed? No, of course, he didn’t need anything!

Frustrated, Jack hit his head on the desk few times.

“Damn it…”

Was he seriously about to ask his family about it? Should he even do that? Will they give him some ideas, if he asks? Will they laugh at him? Definitely, but now Jack had nothing to lose.

Emma… wasn’t really any help. She quickly proposed the typical ones – books, cups, clothes. Yet, when Jack shot all ideas down, she rolled her eyes.

North liked the idea of baking something, because everything sweet was good in his book anyway, so this wasn’t very reassuring vote. However he even gave Jack few recipes’ ideas, which sounded totally delicious.

It looked like the winner of the small contest was gradually moving to the first place.

Jack returned to his room, sighing loudly. The baking idea was good and maybe he would really, really consider it, but something deep inside told him that it wasn’t what he really wanted to give Hiccup. It was missing something. Of course, Jack knew Hiccup would be happy about any present, but Jack didn’t want to give him some present, but special present.

Wow, if this didn’t sound cliché, he wasn’t sure what did then. Almost like he was searching for a present for his real partner…

Jack stopped in the middle of his room, just a foot away from the chair on which he wanted to sit down. Well, that was awkward. Why did this idea pop inside his head? Oh, he probably was thinking a lot about Hiccup lately due to this gift’s problem. That’s why his brain wrongly associated it with relationship’s issue. Phew, wow, that did scare him right there.

Jack let out a nervous laugh, which was cut in half when he frowned heavily. But he indeed was trying very hard. Was there something wrong in trying to pleasure your friend? Bad choice of words, Jackson. Very wrong.

Okay, now he was having inner conversations with himself. Great. This was what he needed right now, really.

So Jack did the only logical thing in this situation. Stopped thinking about it. There was far more important matter to attend to, than think about whatever he was feeling right now.

He read few more messages from Aster and Tooth, but they still didn’t come up with a better idea. He also answered the rest of people, scheduled a meeting on Tuesday, promised that he would visit his friend in work before Christmas and then he checked the time. It was late, close to midnight and tomorrow was school. But it was close to Christmas, so he could stay a little bit late and play some games. He still didn’t finish _Bioshock Infinite_ anyway… Yep, too tempting to go to sleep now. Besides, he can always sleep during some classes, right? But better not to tell Hiccup about it, because he will get mad.

Which reminded him that Hiccup still didn’t reply to Jack’s last message. The pauses today were definitely longer than usual. Maybe he was just spending time with Astrid? Or reading something?

Jack sent him another message and turned on the game. The loading screen took over the wallpaper with loading icon blinking in front of his tired, but filled with desire eyes. Oh, this was going to be so good! Of course it would be, if someone didn’t pick exactly this minute to call him.

He turned his head to the buzzing device next to his right hand.

“What the heck…” Jack murmured, staring at the blinking phone. It was very late. Who could call him at this hour?

For a second or two he wanted to ignore it. Hello, it was pretty late, he could be sleeping and this someone was calling him at ungodly hour! But maybe… just maybe this someone knew he wasn’t sleeping right now.

With a groan he grabbed the cellphone and looked at the caller ID – Bunny. What the heck he wanted now? They had talked like… five minutes ago on Facebook and Jack remembered Aster saying he was going to sleep. Huh, weird.

“Sup.” Jack said, putting the phone between his head and arm. The menu screen popped out on the monitor.

The voice on the other side answered after a second, with hesitation, like Aster already reconciled with the idea that Jack wouldn’t pick up.

“Hey.” A small pause, where Jack clicked the ‘continue’ button. “Are you playing?” His voice quickly turned stern. Oh, Jack could already see him frowning.

“Erm ya?” Then he sighed. Here comes the lecture – a never ending waterfall of things Jack should think about first before playing so late in the night, especially if he has school tomorrow. “Chill out, Bunny. We almost have Christmas, I can stay late once in a while.”

He waited for the same low voice of his friend telling him that he should think about his choices, that tomorrow they should be listening to very important classes and that his sleep was good for his body and blah blah blah. But nothing like this came.

There was just another pause.

“Aster, everything’s okay?” Jack lifted himself up and quickly turned back on the menu screen. Just five minutes ago he was acting normal… or well, a little bit more sarcastic and mean than usual, but it was still within the range of normality. “You know you can always talk to me, right?”

“I know.” Aster sighed. Uh oh, something was definitely off. “It’s nothing, I’m probably just tired and overthinking everything.” A lie, Jack could detect it. But he also knew well Aster’s stubborn nature. Like really, it took sometimes light years for him to say what was bugging him. “But never mind me. I just remembered something, which may come in handy for you.”

“I’m all ears for ya.”

“Hiccup’s present. Buy him lab safety glasses.”

“What?” Jack asked, glancing to the side, like he expected Aster to stand there with his crossed arms and scrutinizing look. But, of course, the only thing he saw was his blue wall.

“Just do it. I heard him complaining about a crack on the one he has right now.” Then came another sigh, or more like a very long exhale.

Jack was… puzzled.

“O-oh, okay, thanks, it really helps me a lot.” But the weirdness of this situation didn’t. Aster was acting strange.

“I know. This is all I wanted to say. Good night. Don’t stay too late.”

And almost like Aster didn’t even wait for Jack’s response, the line became silent. Jack slowly moved the device away from his ear to confirm that indeed, the call ended. The conversation definitely happened, but the atmosphere of it was so bizarre and unreal that Jack had to pinch himself. Which he did.

Nope, it still hurt.

He slowly put the phone away, observing it, expecting it to ring and not, both in the same time.

That was… honestly queer. Aster was not acting like himself. Something was definitely on his mind. But in this matter Aster was just like Hiccup – plain stubborn and it would take hard methods to make them talk. But Jack knew it wasn’t the way. Time was. Sometimes it took Aster months to open up to Jack and he was Aster’s best-friend!

So now he could only wait and hope for the best.

But at least Jack had an idea for Hiccup’s present.

* * *

 

“I can’t believe I’m doing it…” Hiccup mumbled to Toothless, laying peacefully on his lap as he sat on his bed with phone in his hand. “I can’t believe it…”

Toothless pried open his one eye and looked at him, almost nudging with this glare to already do it and not fret over it.

But it was hard. However Hiccup was already sitting on his bed for at least ten minutes, definitely not doing what he was supposed to do, so yeah… He could do it, somehow…

He searched for a name in his contact list (which wasn’t hard, he didn’t have that many people there) and clicked the green button next to it. His stomach felt like stone inside his body when he put the device near his ear. First beep, second beep…

Maybe there weren’t home? Maybe they were still somewhere in work or out with other friends?

Third beep…

Oh, maybe he had nothing to worry about. He can just call them in an hour and he will have time to read and calm down and not worry about how weird his plead sounded in his head.

Fou…

“What’s up, dude?”

Shit, the happiness was so close.

“Uh h-hey Ruff…” His hands fidgeted and Toothless scoffed in his sleep. Small talk, small talk, buy himself some time to calm down. “How a-are you?”

The not-so-girly snort from the other side told him that he was definitely terrible at small talks.

“Ah and here is our always polite and awkward Hiccup.” Ruffnut chuckled and then it sounded like she stood up and walked somewhere. Was she alone in her room? Hiccup didn’t hear any loud sounds coming from the background. “I’m living as usual. Work, school, work, beating few people in the dark alley, school… you know the usual.”

“Wait what?” Had Hiccup heard right? He had seen Ruffnut kicking some boys’ butts back when they were all in one school and had heard stories about her voyages, but seriously?

“Maybe. So why are you calling me? You usually write on Skype… or actually you rarely write first.”

That was true. He rarely was the first one to start a conversation. The exceptions were interlocutions he had with Fishlegs and Astrid. Even with Jack, the white haired teen was the first one to initiate chats.

“I have… some weird favor to ask.”

“Uh, I like it. Weird is good! Come on, hit me with what you’ve got. But be fast. You have one and only chance of talking with me without my brother sneaking around.” Ruffnut said happily.

And that was indeed almost impossible to talk with one twin without the other one being in the background (or relatively close). Hiccup couldn’t understand how they had their own private life, when it felt like they were inseparable.

“Wow… okay…” Hiccup got it. There was nothing to be nervous about. “This may sound very, very, very odd… or strange… or both… maybe outlandish would be a good word to use here… but if you think about it from other side…”

“To the point Hiccup!”

“Is your mom somewhere in your home? I need to ask her something.”

Okay, words somehow left his lungs – glued together in one, coherent sentence. Phew, that wasn’t so bad and when he said it so quickly, it almost wasn’t as nerve-wracking as he thought it would be.

“My mom? Did I hear correctly?” Ruffnut sounded not as astonished as Hiccup though she would be.

She was always the twin better understanding people than Tuffnut. He would probably start screaming incoherent words into the phone by now. Hiccup was glad he decided to call her.

“Yes, I need to ask her about something.” Hiccup repeated, feeling very, very dumb.

“I mean… okay.” Ruffnut slowly mumbled and then she walked out of her room, judging probably by the sound of her footsteps. “But why?”

Okay, so what can he say? Of course not the full truth, because Ruffnut – no matter how emphatic she was – would spill it to the whole world, or his brother which means exactly the same. And Hiccup didn’t feel like sharing his ideas with hundreds of people.

“I need to ask her few questions about plants…” He slowly said, combing Toothless’ fur with his fingers. The cat opened one eye, but quickly returned to his afternoon nap.

“Since when are you interested in biology?” Ruffnut knew him to well. Which was almost terrifying.

“I’m not… I just…” Spill a little. “Need few ideas for presents and I though your mom would come up with few ideas. As you know… it’s her hobby.” Okay, this was awkward. However now it was too late to back off.

He heard as Ruffnut opened some door and moved further into her house. Probably into kitchen, judging by the rhythmical sound of metal hitting wood.

“Presents?” Oh, Hiccup already didn’t like her voice. It wasn’t a good sign. Especially the devilish hum at the end. “I’ll let this topic slip away for now, but later I want to know every detail.” Then Ruffnut moved the phone away from her ear, but her voice was still audible. “Mom, do you have a minute? Hiccup needs to ask you few things.”

He waited patiently, listening to the conversation on the other side and bracing himself for what was coming. To be honest, he was nervous around twins’ parents. He talked with them many times and they were very nice people, but… they were so different from Ruffnut and Tuffnut that Hiccup didn’t know how to behave around them.

He heard as the girl passed the phone and the sweet voice of her mother swam into the microphone.

“Hello Hiccup darling, what seems to be the problem?”

Yep, like fire and ice, or proton and electron, or anode and cathode, or… never mind.

“Uhm hello, misses Thorston, I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” Hiccup hoisted himself up, leaning his back on the wall behind him.

The woman on the other side put something away. Maybe she was making dinner?

“Of course not honey. I always have time for you.” Her sweet voice tickled his eardrum (well, not in the biological way, but he kind of felt like it was really happening). Hiccup could imagine her bright pink lips forming a kind, nice smile. “At least it’s the only thing I can do in gratitude for taking care of my babies.”

No matter how old and big the twins were, they were still kids in their mother’s eyes and Hiccup… kind of could understand her. The fact that they both soon will be adults wasn’t helping much, when they still were buying each other Nerf Guns for Christmas.

“I’m always glad to help.” Hiccup said, even though no one could tame the wildness of twins’ nature. Not even their parents and especially not he.

Misses Thorston sighed heavily, like she just remembered some really terrible memory (maybe even recalled poor devastated roses Tuffnut and Snotlout had destroyed during the last party).

“So with what I can help you today, sweetie?”

“Oh…” Okay, Hiccup planned this whole conversation in his head. Few minutes ago he had known exactly what words he should use, in what combination, what questions should he ask and what answers give, but now his brain was empty – recharge, recharge! “I need help in some… flowers’ problem?”

“I’m all ears.” The woman chirped happily on the other side and apparently switched something off on the cooker.

Hiccup bit his lip as his chest rose and fell down.

“I want to give my friend a potted flower or a small tree or a plant for Christmas’ present, but I don’t know what I should buy…”

He wasn’t even sure if this was a good idea, but after the talk at Jack’s house something had struck him to move into that direction.

The woman hummed.

“Describe your friend to me.” She said very gently.

“Uhm…” Where should he start? He didn’t know Jack that much in the end. “He is very kind guy, who is always smiling, even when the times are bad. And he tries really hard to be this one person always optimistic in every situation, but actually he is very insecure about himself.” This was okay to say, right? It’s not like it was some kind of secret... Not to mention he was saying his name. “Plus he always puts others before himself and do not think about consequences of this!” Oh, he started to speak faster, which was commented by a soft chuckle from the woman on the other side.

“He sounds like a nice guy.” Misses Thorston said, probably playing with the braid made from her long, very faint blonde hair.

Jack really was an amazing guy.

“He is.” Hiccup nodded to himself, circling his finger around Toothless’ ear.

“So what colors does he like?”

“Erm… blue?” Because of his blouse. “Maybe white?” Due to the snowflakes and his hair. “More over bright colors?” He saw few colorful items inside Jack’s room. Dark colors just didn’t suit him.

“Very simple man, I like it.” The woman giggled. “Optimism and happiness of others before his own… how about holly? It symbolizes _hope_ and has beautiful white petals. But the berries are poisonous, so watch out for them.” The last sentence was more stern and serious.

Hiccup nodded and stood up from his bed, moving immediately to the desk. Poor Toothless had to jump and settle on laying on Hiccup’s pillow.

“Wait a second, I’ll write that down.” He quickly grabbed the first paper which laid on the desk (an old homework?) and took a pen, writing down the first idea. “Holly flower, got it.”

“Typical one is chrysanthemum – a symbol of _optimism, joy_ and _truth_.” Hiccup nodded, listening to the lecture and writing down another idea. This sounded good too. “But I read somewhere that white chrysanthemums symbolize also a _loyal love_ and I’m not sure if you want to go into that direction.” There was a hint of amusement at the end of her sentence. Maybe the twins weren’t so different from their mother after all?

Hiccup cringed internally. Loyal love? They were dating… fake-dating, but loyal love? What would Jack even think if Hiccup got him that? Better not to dwell on it for too long, because it won’t happen.

“N-no thank you.” That was ridiculous. Hiccup couldn’t really believe he was doing it. And of course, he was sure Ruffnut was somewhere close, listening to this whole conversation. Gladly she could only hear half of it.

“If he is feeling sad about being insecure maybe white Heather then? It signifies _one’s wishes coming true_.” The woman said dreamily, like she was remembering something from her youth.

This sounded excellent, if it wasn’t for the name of the flower. Nu-huh, Hiccup couldn’t imagine giving it to Jack, when the teen wanted to get away from Heather.

“Erm… not so much.” He mumbled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck with his pen.

Misses Thorston listed some more names – worth mentioning were Hydrangea (but Hiccup shot it down, because of few bad meanings), Larkspur (even though it meant _pure heart_ and _desire for laughter_ , there was too much love around it), and Alstroemeria (it would a good idea, if it wasn’t probably toxic to cats).

Hiccup never thought that picking out the right flower was this difficult.

“Picky aren’t we?” The woman said. He was already opening his mouth to apologize for making so much problems, when she started speaking again. “But it’s okay. It means you’re putting your heart and soul into choosing it. So I assume it’s someone important.”

Jack… was important to Hiccup – as a friend, of course, even very close friend now.

There was a long pause on the other side, where the only thing Hiccup heard was low, but very warm hum. He played with his pen, staring at the paper dotted with names of flowers, some of which were underlined and some surrounded by question marks.

Was giving a simple plant even a good idea? Would Jack even be happy about receiving something so… plain? What if he will be weirded out or uncomfortable by that? Maybe he should really stick to giving cooking book.

“How about Lilac?”

“Lilac?” Hiccup repeated, shaking his head, trying to clear it and return to the right tracks.

“Yes, they come in very different colors. Blue symbolize _happiness_ and _tranquility_ , while white stands for _purity_ and _innocence_.” Jack – innocent? As if. Hiccup had to snort under his nose at this bizarre idea.

Yet there was some childish purity inside of him after a second though. The way he smiled, the way he acted, the way he stared at the world through this wide open, blue eyes.

“Lilac…” Hiccup mumbled and wrote the name down, circling it two times.

“And they look and smell heavenly in the spring.” The woman coed. Her rosy voice flooded Hiccup’s mind with the warm memories of spring’s mornings. Hiccup knew this flower, or more like a tree, and remembered seeing it during his walks around the town.

It sounded… very good.

“I like it.” Hiccup nodded to himself, swirling away on his chair to the center of the room.

“Oh, if you interested, I can recommend few shops where you can buy them even now.” The woman happy mood radiated from the other side.

“I will be thankful, thanks.”

“Everything for you, dear.”

It wasn’t so bad after all.

* * *

 

The last three days in school were filled with leisurely atmosphere and loosened up teacher. Only Professor Black walked around, furrowing his eyebrows and glaring at every Christmas’ decoration like he wanted to burn it and dance on the ashes. Yet even he wasn’t giving too much homework. Everyone was very glad for that.

Jack, on the other hand, had bubbles of joy floating inside of him. It was hard to stay calm when Christmas’ was one of the most beloved holidays in his household. Overland’s family wasn’t very big, but they often visited each other during this time and Jack felt happy that he could see some people again.

Holidays were always a time for him to catch up with other people – family and friends.

On Monday Heather waved to him, when they passed each other in the corridor. The movement apparently was weird to everyone else but Jack, because Tooth asked if something happened between them. Jack only mumbled a simple ‘no’ while rising his eyebrow.

Heather looked a little bit better, but maybe only because she was surrounded by her friends and didn’t want to show what was really inside of her. He should ask about her mood later, when she will be alone.

Jack didn’t see a lot of Dagur around the school, only glimpses of his silhouette disappearing behind corners. But whenever Jack saw him, he looked awfully down.

Aster acted… well… normal, after his sudden call about Hiccup’s present. It made Jack almost think that he only imagined the whole weirdness around this situation. The only out of place thing were glances Aster sent to him while they were talking with Astrid and Hiccup on the corridor. Like he wanted to check, if Jack received the message. The white haired teen only nodded once in response (when no one was looking) – he got it.

The present was already bought and was laying wrapped under clothes in the wardrobe, just like many other gifts.

Hiccup was whole another matter. Once or twice Jack found Hiccup glancing at the place where Dagur had disappeared. And whenever Hiccup turned around small wrinkles appeared on his nose – but it looked like they came from concern than anger. Did he know something? He even saw Hiccup stealing glances at Jack. Maybe it wouldn’t be so weird, if his face didn’t look then like he was assessing something. But what?

“So what are you guys doing on New Year’s Eve?” Tooth asked, looking from Hiccup to Astrid who stood next to each other.

“Well we have a wild night planned out!” The blonde said, smiling wildly.

Jack looked down at Hiccup who was standing next to him. The boy slowly shook his head. Yeah, so not that wild night.

“If it involve twins then it definitely must be wild.” Aster commented, crossing his arms on his chest.

“Actually yes. We are spending this night with Ruffnut and Tuffnut at their house with tons and tons of games.” Astrid puffed out her chest and hit it with her fist.

“A nerd night out, hmmm?” Jack looked down at Hiccup, wiggling his eyebrows. The boy only hit him in the ribcage in response. Maybe it wasn’t too powerful, but Jack still felt it. “Ouch… How did twins agree to that?”

“Well, we almost always go to their parties, so they kind of have to do something we like.” Hiccup said with a victorious smirk. He was even darting his head upwards, very proud of himself apparently – that tiny…

“I can’t imagine them being too happy about it.” Tooth sighed.

Jack took his chance when no one was looking at them to jab his finger into Hiccup’s side. Hiccup jumped in the air, letting out a small yelp. The glare that followed after was worth it. No one mess with Jack and comes out unscathed from it.

“They weren’t…” Hiccup mumbled, still not taking his eyes off him. Jack tried to stop grinning, but it was hard. “But they won’t die just because they will spend one evening alone with us.”

“I can’t imagine twins sitting in one place for longer than half an hour.” Aster said and Hiccup of course dropped the glare he was sending at Jack.

Winning this one fight was almost impossible for Jack. Whenever Aster spoke, Hiccup’s attention would immediately slip away from Jack. What love was doing with people…

“Apparently they are good in some games.” Astrid was next to speak, shifting her weight from one leg to another and staring at Bunny. “Especially _Jungle Speed*_. Never play this game with them.” Astrid’s tone of voice suddenly dropped down and she encircled herself in a hug.

Jack glanced at her, then looked at Hiccup who tore his gaze away from Aster. The auburn haired teen only moved his lips, forming a simple, inaudible _‘bad memories’_ with it.

“So you’re not going to the city center to see fireworks?” Jack asked instead, when neither Astrid nor Hiccup were up to say more about the sudden morbid atmosphere surrounding that topic.

“I’m not sure. Knowing twins we will go out to see them, but we probably stick to our Park. You can see them clearly from there anyway.” Hiccup explained.

Jack hummed under his nose. Hiccup was referring to the same park where they had talked about details of their fake-relationship. Wow, it was only a month ago, maybe a little more, but for Jack it felt like light years.

“How about you guys?” Astrid suddenly asked, shaking her head first, clearing it from the terrible memories.

“There is this party at Marina’s* place and we were all invited. But we’ll probably go out to see the fireworks, so we could see each other near midnight!” Tooth suddenly clasped her hands, tilting the head to look at Astrid. “We should totally call each other earlier to meet together and see them!”

Astrid nodded quickly in response.

“I’m in! Twins and Snotlout will definitely be up to see some familiar faces!”

“Sounds good.” Jack added, putting both hands inside his pockets. He nudged Hiccup with his arm. “How about you?”

“Ugh, I have to spend the first few minutes of New Year with you?” Hiccup groaned, casting his eyes upwards like he was asking gods why they had sent this curse upon him. Nevertheless, he quickly glanced at Jack back. “I’ll do it, only because I don’t want to see you crying, if I disagree.”

Jack touched his chest.

“You wound me.” He said, but the smile on his lips was destroying the fake-hurt image he wanted to show. Hiccup’s grin wasn’t helping him either.

“So are we all in?” Aster asked, looking at everyone, finding some sign of approval from their sides.

Hiccup turned his head away in a blink of an eye, or maybe even quicker.

To be honest, lately, whenever Hiccup had done that, the sudden prickling sensation had started to run through Jack’s body. He wasn’t mad at Hiccup. Of course not. Jack knew how crushes worked. Heck, he had a crush (or two) in his life. He remembered the urge to look at someone important whenever she or he spoke. The need to listen to their voice whenever it was possible. It was natural and nothing to be ashamed of.

So why was he feeling that way? Maybe he was pissed at Aster that he wasn’t noticing it. Come on, it was so obvious! No one can turn their heads so fast without an important reason. Besides, how could he not notice those shining eyes directed at him that literally screamed with emotions!

Maybe he was jealous that Aster was getting all the attention? But it was ridiculous. Many people told him that he was acting like a child, but to this extent? However Hiccup was also paying a lot of attention to Jack. They were talking via messages, on Skype (because Hiccup preferred it), sometimes in school. It wasn’t like Jack was ignored by the teen. On the contrary, he was getting a lot of attention. Yet it always took only one word coming from Aster’s mouth for whole Hiccup’s focus to be redirected elsewhere.

Jack liked to call the sudden irritation that was appearing inside of him whenever Aster stole Hiccup’s attention _the first wave_. But the sudden rush of guilt ( _the second wave_ ) following soon after it was even worse. _The third wave_ of happiness for Hiccup to be able to spend some time with Aster was appealing to him more.

So why the first two feelings were so different from the third?

“Yeah, totally.” Someone spoke.

Hiccup’s smile was brighter than full moon. And just like a sudden inflow, _the third wave_ appeared once again.

* * *

 

The day before Christmas was a very hectic one. Jack was glad that the school had  already ended, because he couldn’t imagine how he would be able to go to classes and clean his whole house in one day. And even though the Overlands were regularly cleaning their house every week, the amount of dirt and garbage still gathering after every cleaning rendezvous was unbelievable.

Emma, of course, was groaning and sighing every five minutes, asking why she had to do it. North only told her that it was a tradition to clean house before Christmas. Easy for him, as he was spending the whole day in the kitchen, not even taking a step out from it, not counting trips to the bathroom.

“This tradition sucks…” Emma said, but returned to dusting off all snow globes on the shelves.

Jack had no problem with cleaning actually. He turned on some music and sang to it, running around with a vacuum cleaner.

His facebook chat and telephone was buzzing with messages from friends, asking him if he has some time after Christmas Eve to meet or complaining about chores.

Hiccup wasn’t writing much. He told Jack that he was working on his project and cleaning a little. Hiccup and his father were going to the Jorgensons for Christmas’ dinner, so they weren’t making much food at home.

But if the previous day was a little bit hectic, then the twenty-fourth* of December was filled with action – almost like someone turned on the hardest mode in this wicked game. Waking up early was compulsion and getting ready fast was mandatory. They had some time until their family will come, but North wanted to be prepared for everything. There weren’t too many people coming over actually. Just North’s brother with his family and Tara’s – Emma mother – sister with her husband. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for Jack. North often had told him about the old days when his house was filled with their family’s member, but everyone had moved away and nowadays it was hard to gather the whole family in one place.

Besides, the last time the Overlands had the whole family over at their house the police had come, because they were partying till 4 am. Sometimes it was better to have a small party.

There was unfortunately one very big bad thing about this day. There was no snow outside. Jack had jumped out of bed this morning to pout when the white layer wasn’t visible in the back yard. Was it a consequence of global warming or what? Yet Jack didn’t allow for this one thing to ruin his good mood.

The rest of the day was spent trying to answer everyone on his phone and do something productive in the kitchen. North also was picking his phone every ten minutes to greet some family member or a friend from work. Emma was the only person not looking at her device every five minutes. Well she was glancing at her laptop laying peacefully on the table. Jack knew for what she was waiting for. They all were, but they were busing themselves with doing something else.

Their mother had promised to call them. That is, if she will somehow be able to connect with the internet. If not, the good old phone of North was still available.

Jack was kind of nervous too. They didn’t see each other in a year already and they won’t do it for another half. The parting was hard for all of them, but Emma took it the worst. She was still a child, no matter how hard she denied it.

So Jack decided not to comment it. Even if he did it, Emma would only glare at him in return.

Jack sighed as he felt his pocket vibrating one more time.

It was his team captain wishing him a happy holidays, even though he had done it during the last morning training. He quickly replied back and pocketed his phone back.

He had already called both Aster and Tooth and the rest of his close friends in the morning after he had woken up (including Heather, Jack was curious how she was feeling after their encounter). They didn’t talk for too long, because they all had chores to do, but it was nice to hear everyone’s voices first thing in the Christmas’ morning.

He had called Hiccup too, but the boy hadn’t picked up. After three hours the line was still silent. Was he so occupied that he wasn’t able to pick one call from a friend?

Near the afternoon, when North was finishing his famous cookies filled with marmalade, Hiccup still wasn’t picking up.

* * *

 

Hiccup had enough of the noise around the Jorgensons’ house. The loud clattering, yelling, shouting, clapping and laughing sounds weren’t the most appealing things to listen to.

He thought they were all up to normal, calm Christmas’ dinner at his cousin’s home. No one told him that apparently the Thorstons were invited too. So almost being tackled to the ground by a very hyperactive Ruffnut and Tuffnut when he had just barely stepped inside was well… bizarre - mildly saying, if he could add.

Gladly his greeting with Snotlout wasn’t so painful. Hiccup and Snotlout weren’t so close to hang out together without their other friends (not counting the times when their families had visited each other), but it was much better than what they had few years ago. A hand shake and a pat on the arm from the black haired male was enough.

“I didn’t know you guys would be there…” Hiccup said, when he was finally allowed to take off his shoes and move further into the house. Snotlout and his family weren’t living in a single-family house in the suburbs, but in a flat in a residential block, so the apartment wasn’t that big. And judging by the sounds coming from the living room and kitchen, there won’t be much place to maneuver later that day either.

And it was supposed to be calm day.

“We didn’t know too, bruh.” Tuffnut said and then sniffed loudly. He brushed his nose with his sleeve. “Our cooker stopped working yesterday and we had to come up with a back-up plan quickly.”

“So we’re here!” Ruffnut finished, moving to Snotlout and hip bumping him. The force made the taller teen stumble to his right, almost crashing into the wall.

Ruffnut had a lot of power in her body. Some guys actually felt that power on their faces and in other more inappropriate places. Hiccup was really glad he was on her good side.

He glanced at his cousin who looked weirdly… displeased.

“Ruffnut, Tuffnut, come here for a sec!” Misses Thorston called loudly from the living room.

The twins groaned both in the same time and then ran in that direction.

Hiccup took this chance and moved to Snotlout.

“I thought you would be happy about Ruff and Tuff spending Christmas with us.” He said, nodding in the direction where their friends disappeared.

Snotlout glanced at him and snorted. Hiccup was used to it.

“I am.” Snotlout huffed. “I am just worried about consequences.”

What? Did Hiccup hear right? Was his irresponsible cousin worrying about consequences of something? Was it reality? Or maybe Hiccup stepped into some alternative universe? He didn’t remember climbing any ladder near the highway*.

“Don’t look at me like that! Who do you think destroyed that cooker?” The black haired teen threw his hands in the air and then pointed them at the door to the living room. “Plus, you know how our families act after alcohol. Add Thorstons and Gobber to it and we have a disaster.”

Hiccup chuckled under his nose, wrapping his arms around himself. He had the thickest sweater on, but he was still feeling cold. And snow didn’t even fall down this year. Yet…

“You now know how I feel whenever I go out with you guys.”

Snotlout furrowed his eyebrows.

“Ha-ha very funny. We aren’t that bad.”

“Remember when you took trolleys from Walmart, wanted to fasten fire extinguisher to them and race on the highway?” Hiccup lifted his eyebrow. He, Astrid and Fishlegs had to close the front door of the twins’ house to stop them from pursuing this idea further.

Snotlout opened his mouth, but then closed it.

The auburn haired teen smirked in victory.

Hiccup’s pocket vibrated. He quickly took the phone out and looked at the caller ID. Jack was calling him. His finger was already moving to answer it, when he heard a loud crashing sound coming from the kitchen and a yell that resembled definitely Mister Thorston’s voice. Then Snotlout’s father laughed heartily, which was followed by another banging sound and a shriek.

Yeah, definitely a disaster.

Hiccup glanced one more time at his phone and pocketed it. He will call Jack later when everything will be under control.

* * *

 

The shriek coming from Emma mouth scared the living daylights out of him. He was in the middle of gently mixing ingredients for sponge cake when the girl made that sound in the living room.

“Dad, Jack, Mom is calling!” She peeked her head inside the kitchen to disappear a second later.

Jack looked at North and they both left their things there, not finishing anything they were doing. After a second though, North ran back to turn off the gas under soup.

Emma was pacing nervously in front of the laptop standing on the already made table, waiting for guests to appear any second now (even though they shouldn’t be here for another hour). Her fingers were laced together, however bended in weird angles.

Jack sat on one chair and Emma quickly followed after. North rushed into the living room.

“What are you doing? Pick it up.” He said joyfully, looking around and then grabbing the free chair standing under the cupboard filled with silvery. Emma was cleaning it just few minutes ago.

“Uhm… right.” His sister’s hand floated above the keyboard to finally land slowly on the touchpad, clicking it. The mouse icon was already on a receiving button, waiting patiently for all family’s member to gather around the device.

Emma’s palm was trembling as she was moving it back. Jack couldn’t blame her. No matter how hard she tried to look strong, she was still a kid. A very independent child, but she was only ten.

The black screen took over the laptop’s monitor and Jack could her Emma sucking a breath. Even North sitting between them became rigid, like by moving even an inch he could somehow stop the transmission. Jack knew more over that it was impossible, but he understood the fear (Hiccup could probably explain it better, using proper nerdy words). He himself put his hands under his legs to stop them from shaking.

The transmission blinked, screeched and few white stripes ran through the screen.

Jack’s hands fidgeted nervously under his knees.

This minute or so, when they waited for the screen to become more over clean was the worst minute in their life. But when the awful sound stopped and very fuzzy image of the person sitting on the other side appeared, everyone exhaled the air they kept inside their lungs until now.

The woman on the other side was looking with squinted eyes at the device, keeping something near her mouth. Her almost whole face was hidden under the thick hoodie with only one black curl of hair sticking out.

“Hello? Ca- ” A buzzing sound resonated around the room. “-hear me? Hello?” Then the woman moved closer to the computer. “This transmitter is a bitch.” She whispered. Unfortunately for her, the mic caught it and they all heard it.

Emma was the first to react.

“Mom!”

Tara on the other side jumped and moved away from the screen. Her lips stretched into a soft yet, a little awkward smile.

“Oh, I can finally see you! Sorry. This stupid computer didn’t want to work with me correctly. Do you know long it took me to connect to the internet? Let me tell you that I couldn’t even load one picture of some cute, fuzzy cat.” Her voice was still wonky, sometimes cut in the middle, but they finally could see and hear her.

North laughed heartily, with his stomach shaking under the inner force and just like that Jack relaxed immediately.

“It’s good to see you’re the same as ever.” The man said, leaning a little bit closer to the computer.

Tara rolled her chocolate eyes. The air from her mouth formed a small cloud.

“I’m glad that you’re all here. I wanted to call when my sister would be at yours place, but it looks like I’m a little bit early.” She said, gracing them with another grin and then unzipped a little bit of her jacket, so they could see her chin and hear her more clearly.

North, next to Jack, nodded, tapping his foot nervously on the floor. It was kind of sweet in Jack’s opinion. Even after eleven years of marriage, his dad was sometimes acting nervous around his wife. It was probably because of the time they had to spend apart.

“She should be here in forty minutes or so.” North said, glancing at the clock on the wall.

Tara smiled sadly, but nodded.

“Well, we will talk some other time.” She brushed away that one persistent black lock glued to her forehead. “So now stories’ time! Tell me everything that happened in your life!”

Jack grinned under his nose when Emma jumped into very long story about her classmate who supposedly had a crush on some boy, who was very mean, but apparently totally cute and… Jack actually stopped listening after that. He heard about it two days ago already.

Jack, in the meantime, relaxed and allowed for the fast, but very excited rhythm of spoken words to flow through his body, warming him up. North from time to time was butting into the conversation, filling Tara with information about his work or their friends, but Emma was the star of the show. She was babbling, shouting, sometimes whispering to the laptop and most of the times laughing.

It was nice to see her so joyful. It wasn’t like she was unnaturally sad during the last few days, but sometimes the tension appeared – for a second or two, but Jack knew her enough to notice those furrowed eyebrows.

They were on it for at least twenty minutes - a never ending river of sentences, questions and answers. They didn’t have much more time. Usually they had half an hour to catch up and then they had to end the call.

Catching a signal in Antarctica was awfully hard*. Not to mention very expensive. But Christmas was special for everyone, so every person in research group wanted to contact the family and wish them a happy holidays.

Some man painfully pointed it out, as his voice echoed in the Overlands house.

“Tara, you have ten minutes left. Next is Professor Radcliffe in line!”

Tara had some problems turning her head around, due to very big hood on her head, but she more over was able to respond to whoever was interrupting her.

“Tell him to just wait patiently.” She shouted, quickly focusing on them again. Her cunning, bright and excited eyes moved from Emma and North to land on Jack. “Jack, you’re unnaturally silent. Something happened? Come on, talk to me!”

Jack groaned theatrically as he moved closer, scratching legs of his chair on the floor.

“If you insist…” The grin was although stretched on his mouth. “I’m good. The practices are going fine. We didn’t win the last match, but well the opposite team was very good.” He shrugged. It really wasn’t that bad. Beside they had lost by only one point. “In school I’m doing fine… surprisingly. I even got B+ in Math!” Well, he couldn’t stop bragging a little. He even puffed out his chest, because come on! It was amazing!

Tara’s eyes widened. She even leaned closer to the monitor.

“Really? Jack, you got B on Professor Black’s test?” She then glanced at North. “Did someone replace our son with some impostor?”

North and Emma both burst in laugher, and Jack crossed his arms on his chest, sulking at the screen.

Tara looked back at him with warm smile returning to her pale lips.

“I’m very proud of you, Jack.” She said. The real, warm proudness was radiating from her eyes as she was staring right back at him.

This was one of the most amazing traits about her. The pure, clear honesty. She wasn’t this type who was always nice and delicate with people. When someone was acting ridiculously, she was always the first person to point it out. No matter how terrible it was and how harsh words she had to use.

Sometimes people got offended by it, but she never changed her ways. The truth was always better than sweet lies in her opinion. Jack was totally agreeing with her way of living.

But she also loved to make people fluster or lose their tongue. It was her own personal hobby.

North even had told Jack that she was quite the trickster back in College. Tara was always telling him that he definitely took the prankster’s gene after her (no matter how biologically incorrect it was, it always made him happy).

“Thanks…” Jack murmured, feeling that indeed he was starting to blush. Sometimes this stare was hard to hold, but he wanted to maintain it no matter what. They didn’t know when they will hear each other again.

“So why the sudden change in grades?” She asked instead.

This actually wasn’t very nice to recollect, especially during such happy holidays.

“Well, Professor Black told me that I needed to pass the next test or I might…” He gulped. Wow, talking about grades with his mom was never easy. “Fail this semester, so yeah… ” He scratched the back of his head, coughing and glancing to the side. “But I did it!”

“Thanks to Hiccup!” Emma yelled from the other side of North, peaking at him from behind their father.

“But I wrote the test!” Jack wasn’t going to lose this fight so quickly. Emma had a point though.

“But he taught you everything!” Emma wasn’t backing down.

“However, you must agree that Jack had to learn it all almost from the beginning.” North even butted in, protecting Jack in his matter. That was surprising, usually he was taking Emma’s side, just to tease him.

“Ha! See!” Jack shouted, almost standing and pointing at the brown haired girl still seated on the opposite side. “I’m the best! I won!”

Emma grumbled some uncoherent words and slumped down on her chair, not used to losing when it came to their small bickering. She huffed away the lock of her hair that landed on her nose.

“Okay, I think I’m lost. Who is Hiccup?” Tara on the other side was looking from her daughter to Jack with puzzled look painted on her face.

“He is Jack’s friend who was tutoring him to help him pass this Math test.” North responded, turning back to the conversation.

“Oh… so is he like in College?”

“Erm no… he is one year younger than me actually…” Jack mumbled, leaning on his chair and straightening his legs in front of him. Both his palms landed inside his pockets. “But he is super smart, so he has almost all advanced science’s classes.”

“Did you meet recently? I don’t remember ever hearing about him from you.” Tara had very good memory and when North only knew Jack’s closest friends, Tara could even tell the whole family tree of people Jack only knew. This was sometimes horrifying.

“Yup. I…” Rescued him from some creepy dude? No, better not to say it out loud. “Helped him some other time in school and he decided to help me with learning in his weird way of showing gratitude and yeah… we became friends.”

“That is very nice of him. Especially as you are a very difficult person to teach.” Tara winked at him. “I definitely have to meet him after my return.”

“Sure, you’ll like him.” Jack said, beaming at her. He honestly felt very excited about the idea of introducing Hiccup to his mother. They both were amazing (and also huge nerds), so they definitely will find some common language.

“I don’t doubt it.”

Hold on a second.

What? Jack was lost. Especially with the way Tara was staring at him – with this smile that was holding so many unspoken words, like she cracked some kind of code, but denied to give the password.

Something inside Jack stirred under that look and he felt like hiding, but he had no choice than to slump down on his chair, uttering a simple:

“What do you…”

But Jack’s sentence was cut by a sound of someone urging inside the room on the other side of the screen. The image wavered to the side and screeching sound resonated in the air making everyone flinch and cover their ears.

“Time’s up! Time’s up!”

Frustrated Tara turned on the chair and glared at this someone who barged inside with scrutinized look.

“Give me a minute to say goodbyes, for fuck sake!”

“Tara!”

North immediately jumped to Emma, covering her ears with both huge palms, but the damage was done. Emma definitely heard the forbidden word. And Jack had no heart to tell North that she already had heard it too many times around the house (mostly from Jack’s room, especially while he was playing mostly water stages).

Emma didn’t stop herself although from commenting this.

“Dad, I’m not six. And we’re living in the twenty-first century. I heard this word already a hundred times.” Emma scoffed, pushing North’s hands away from her head while rolling her eyes.

“It doesn’t mean that you need to hear it in our house.”

His sister was opening her mouth to probably say something that would put a great risk of being grounded on Jack, so he had to do something. He leaned and glared at his sister, pointing at his mouth and making a zipping motion. Emma darted her head upwards, but before she was able to add a single word, their mother interrupter them, returning to the screen.

“Okay, guys, I need to end this call. Say hello to my sister from me! I hope you’ll have an amazing Christmas! I will call you as soon as I can!” She almost shouted into the mic, persistently pushing someone who was trying to get to the computer away.

They all turned to her.

“Okay, bye! Have a nice Christmas. Love you.” Of course, North was the first one to reply.

Emma jumped in front of the camera and waved her hand frantically.

“See you soon. We miss you!”

Jack saluted her in farewell, smiling.

“See ya!”

Tara graced them with one last smile and warm ‘Love you all’ before cutting the connection. Her unsteady, but very welcomed image was replaced by a black screen, making them all suddenly sad.

For few minutes they were sitting there, only gaping back at the finished call and number of minutes they were allowed to spend with their family. Only a little more than half an hour. Too less to talk about every important thing that happened to them, too less to really enjoy the conversation, too less to be satisfied, however it was everything they got.

North was the first one to return to reality. He clasped his hands together, bringing everyone back with him.

“Okay, we need to return to work! Chop chop. Emma, you finish making the table and Jack, you help me in the kitchen!” He ordered, standing up. He didn’t even glance back while moving to the kitchen, humming something loudly under his nose.

Both he and Emma escorted him with their eyes. Their stares crossed as North disappeared behind the doors. Emma looked at him and sent a sad smile, shrugging along the way. Jack could see that she wasn’t happy with the amount of time they had with their mother, but it was at least something.

“We better get moving. Auntie Tia will be here any second.” She finally said, slowly standing up.

After a glance at the clock, he had to agree with her. Jack slipped away from his chair and shuffled to the kitchen, where North was finishing Jack’s sponge cake. So the white haired teen was left in charge of the soup. He turned back on the gas under the pot and started to stir the soup North had left so carelessly.

Okay, this maybe was odd, but something Tara had said was still fresh inside his mind. She was a very perceptive woman, able to see things other people sometimes couldn’t (especially the so-called mess in his room, but that wasn’t important right now). When he was feeling down, she could always see right through the mask he was showing the world. She knew instantly just by looking in his eyes whenever he had got in heavy argument with his friends or when he had done something wrong.

So what exactly she had seen just few minutes ago in his eyes? And why did it concern Hiccup of all people?

His stomach clenched, making a back flip inside of him.

He leaned above the pot and smelled the soup. No, this needed basil, definitely. And maybe even a little bit of nutmeg.

Jack liked Hiccup, of course. He was a super cool guy, maybe too big nerd sometimes, who liked to correct people and tease them to no end, but in reality he was a very caring person. Maybe he was kind of lost in the reality, with his different perception of the world around them, but it was charming in its weird way.

Jack took out the spices from the shelf and returned to his dish. He poured some of the dry leaves inside the pot. After staring at the package for five whole seconds, he decided to sprinkle it with the nutmeg too.

And the way Hiccup was excited over everything related to science and books! This was where the real Hiccup was coming to life – with his bright eyes, radiating heat to the surroundings, hands moving everywhere and mouth not closing for even few seconds.

Jack liked him in those moments even more. When there was no barrier between them and everything seemed so easy, plain, that there were no worries in the world.

Well, that sounded awfully cheesy.

Jack shook his head.

He really liked to listen to Hiccup’s monologues, when they moved to the topic he really liked. It was a nice change in his demeanor. His voice also was changing then, from the usual low tone, to very high one, like there wasn’t enough oxygen in the air to say everything he wanted to say. His cheeks often were becoming red then, from the effort he had to make to say everything that was important and it was…

Pretty endearing.

“Jack, you’re phone is buzzing.”

Jack looked up at North standing next to him and pointing at the device laying on the table which indeed was moving on the surface in circle motion.

His heart skipped a beat, seeing the lightened up screen.

Was it finally Hiccup calling him back? He didn’t pick up the last time three times Jack tried to get to him.

He jumped to his phone and quickly caught it.

“Slow down, it’s not going anywhere.”

Jack rolled his eyes, but looked quickly at the caller ID.

Then it felt like someone just squished his insides.

It wasn’t Hiccup who was calling him.

His finger floated above the receiving button, not sure if it should land or not. In the end he just left it there to ring for few more seconds. He will respond after finishing the food, or maybe in the evening.

Jack returned to the cooker and looked inside the pot. It was slowly boiling. And the smell was good. Better than he expected actually.

Was it normal to feel bad, because someone wasn’t picking up? Or was Jack totally overreacting? Maybe. However he had never felt so down when he couldn’t get to someone. Or maybe now he just couldn’t recollect feeling like that.

That was… troubling him a little.

Jack liked to talk with Hiccup. Every message was bringing something new with it, every sentence was making him giddy and often laugh to himself while responding. He liked the way Hiccup reacted to some teasing, the way he explained simple scientific laws, how he was getting excited about nerdy stuff. But he also enjoyed talking with Hiccup in person. Seeing how he was reacting, responding, with his eyes casting him a hesitant smile, radiant, but secretive.

But it was normal. Maybe he wanted to hear Hiccup’s voice today more than some other people’s ones, however it wasn’t that bad. They were friends, in the end. Friends wanted to hear each other voices when they were missing each other.

So why was he feeling like he was searching for excuses?

“Jack, you alright? You’re staring at the pot for four minutes straight already…” North patted him on the back, making Jack almost dive into the soup.

He turned to his father.

“Y-yeah, I’m alright.” Yep, he just stuttered.

“Really?” North wasn’t backing down.

“Uhm yeah, yeah, just lost in thoughts.”

“Okay, I’m going to put some dishes on the table before guests arrive.”

Jack wasn’t even looking at him when he was nodding. The loud footsteps told him that North indeed left the room, leaving Jack alone with his soup and thoughts.

He turned off the gas and closed the lid, sighing heavily. His eyes travelled to land on the phone, laying on the table. He bit his lip.

Jack really wanted to talk with Hiccup, wish him a happy holiday, maybe tease and joke a little, hear what he was doing. However there definitely was a difference in wanting to hear Aster’s or Tooth’s voice today than Hiccup’s.

But what was this difference? And how big it was? It made him a little bit frustrated. He couldn’t grasp this lone thought hiding in the corners of his mind.

Hiccup would probably say that it is impossible for mind to have corners as it is only a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking, and yadda yadda. And because it was not a real, material place, it was impossible for it to have any links to concepts about matter like corners… or something like that.

Jack chuckled out loud, almost hearing Hiccup’s voice inside his brain.

However the doorbell decided to free him from his thoughts by ringing loudly.

Soon after, Jack heard loud shouts of his uncle and father, greeting each other (like they didn’t see each other in ages, even though they probably did a month ago). Two childish voices followed after, yelling to Emma about how happy they were to see her. Jack waited. One, two, three and…

“Uncle North, where is Jack!?” There it was. A little bit late.

“I’m coming!” He shouted back, loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear him.

He cleaned his hands under the water and then dried them off with a cloth.

Before he exited the kitchen he checked his phone one more time. But there was only one unpicked call – not from Hiccup.

Jack would try after the dinner. Maybe spending some time with his family will clear this fog gathering inside his brain.

* * *

 

“Oh boy…” Hiccup mumbled as another glass fell to the floor and shattered under the force. This time it was Spitelout who did it and gladly not Gobber, who already broke three of them.

Hiccup decided to sit with his legs close to his chest to not accidentally step on any shards left. Now it was Snotlout time to clean the pieces, what he did with a loud groan and quite wobbly walk to the corner, where stood the brush, just waiting to be used.

“Come on Hiccup, drink something, turn this frown upside down.” Tuffnut moved his hand and put it on the smaller teen’s shoulders. “It’s Christmas! You have to…” He hiccupped right into his ear. “… you have to…”

Ruffnut peaked from behind her brother.

“Enjoy yourself?” She prompted, tilting her glass.

Tuffnut nodded furiously and gladly finally freed Hiccup from his captivity.

“Yes… this… enjoy yourself! That’s right!” Tuffnut finished his sentence with a big gulp.

Hiccup sighed and massaged his forehead, when both his dad and Mister Thorston burst in laughter. This was a little bit too much sounds around him.

But it wasn’t like he didn’t enjoy himself right now. Maybe with much less loud sounds it would be better, but it still wasn’t so bad.

He was just… really, really tired.

Snotlout returned to his seat on the right side of Hiccup. The glass was more over cleaned from the floor, however he could still see some pieces glinting in the light coming from the Christmas’ tree behind them. They will have to clean it with vacuum cleaner tomorrow.

“If I knew so many glasses would be shattered today, I would buy my mother a full set of new ones.”

“Maybe it is a good idea for birthday?” Hiccup suggested, moving an inch closer to him, because Tuffnut snorted heavily at something their mother said and swayed to the side.

“I’m starting to seriously consider it.” Snotlout muttered, warily glancing at the glass his father was holding.

Because apparently when their families met, there were tons of victims and fatalities in poor dishes. Hiccup knew they had some Vikings’ blood in their vines, but was it really necessary to really destroy at least dozen glasses in the last two hours?

At least his father looked happy. Lately he was always… blank. Nor really happy, nor sad. Maybe Stoick wasn’t very good in showing his emotions, but Hiccup had experience (his whole life, so that was something definitely). He knew he had to search for small things indicating the real feelings of his father. But lately he saw nothing. Of course, whenever he talked with Hiccup he tried to put on that soft smile (‘tried’ is a key word here). But whenever Hiccup had started to move back to his room, he had seen the smile quickly washing off, replacing with a blank look.

Something was on Stoick’s mind and he had a feeling what. Apparently one conversation doesn’t fix the whole problem. Hiccup knew it and yet he felt guilty and dispirited. So seeing Stoick like now, jolly and happy, with mouth stretched in a warm, a little bit drunk smile was good for a change.

A little bit of positive charge was needed in people life. Gaining energy was important to feel completed.

So Hiccup only sat there, finishing the last pieces of their dinner still laying on his plate and listening to the conversations. At first they were more over logical, but after few shots and bottles of beers they started to get weird.

However he never though he would have so good time talking with Snotlout, who was the second in line of drinking the less, which was a little bit weird in Hiccup’s opinion. He had drunk maybe half a glass more than Hiccup.

“You’re not drinking?” Hiccup finally asked, when the twins jumped into weird conversation with the rest of the guest about the increases in sugar’s prices. Really.

“Well, someone need to be a little bit sober.” Snotlout groaned. “Besides, it’s not like I’m not drinking. I’m just… drinking less than usual.” And as to indicate his point, he lifted his glass and took a small sip.

Hiccup hummed in response. No matter how nice it was, it was still a little awkward – sitting like that and talking with his cousin. When they were with the rest of the group it was more over okay, but when they were alone it had been a disaster some time ago. Guess not so much anymore.

He took his fork and started to play with the lonely pea by rolling it on the plate. He pushed it from one side to the other.

Tuffnut and Ruffnut finished their conversation and turned around.

“Why you have so… sad faces?” The girl asked, flipping her braid on her back and trying to focus on Snotlout.

“Yeah, it’s Christmas, you should… have fun…” Tuffnut added, leaning a little on his sister. “And spend time with your family…”

Ruffnut pushed him away with a gagging sound. Hiccup chuckled under his nose.

“We’re sitting next to each other. I think it is enough.” Snotlout mumbled, leaning on his chair and crossing his arms on his chest. He looked like a very grumpy child, who was refused to get a toy in the shop.

“Come on, at least try to smile!” Ruffnut wasn’t stopping her propaganda. She leaned above his brother and put her finger on Hiccup’s cheek, trying to lift it up and imitate a smile. However he had a feeling that it came out more terrifying than appealing. “See, much better!”

Tuffnut cooed next to him and it was the final straw for Hiccup in this matter. He pushed the hand away.

“Ruff, give it a break. I’m okay, I’m having fun, but I’m just too tired to show it, okay?” Hiccup confessed.

“Why are you tired?” Tuffnut questioned him.

Hiccup lifted his eyebrow and stared at them, hoping they would understand what he meant. Unfortunately, they didn’t, as they only blinked in confusion.

Gobber said something and Stoick laughed heartily, almost spilling the drink in his glass.

Hiccup decided to avoid that topic.

“Never mind…”

“You’re really okay?” Tuffnut inquired, which was commented by a scoff from Snotlout side. Drunk twins were a very weird phenomenon – they could turn from dangerous bombs into precious angels in few seconds.

“Yes! And if you ask me one more time about it, I swear I’ll never allow you to use my computer to stalk someone on Facebook!” Hiccup assured, but he wouldn’t be himself, if he didn’t add something extra.

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t cross that line!” The blonde male quickly backed away, staring at him with pained yet pleased look on his face. Totally weird combination.

“Hiccup, bring more alcohol from the kitchen!” Gobber shouted. He probably wasn’t conscious of the volume of his voice.

“Okay.” Hiccup nodded and stood up. He quickly glanced at the twins. “Don’t get too drunk while I’m away.”

“Aye aye Captain!” Ruffnut shouted when Hiccup walked away.

“Not promising anything!” Tuffnut yelled back, lifting his glass like he was actually doing a toast.

Hiccup shook his head with fond smile on his lips. He was speaking the truth, he had fun. It was amazing to see all of his friends and their families in one place, being joyful and simply themselves, without the restrictions put on them by the outside world. He felt like he could act like himself around them, which resulted in him not speaking a lot and mostly listening. The twins pestering was also natural to some extent.

Beside, Christmas was supposed to be spend with family, right? It didn’t matter whether everyone were related by blood or not.

Hiccup walked inside the kitchen where the radio was still on, transmitting some kind of carol. Misses Jorgenson hadn’t switched it off when they had moved to the living room for the main party.

The sink was filled with dirty dishes, some of them barely stood there, inches away from falling down and crashing, like most of the glasses already. Some salads, snacks and small dishes were standing on the counter, probably forgotten by the rest of the crew.

Hiccup decided to let them have their fun.

From the fridge he took few bottles of beer and two bottles of something definitely stronger. He wasn’t an expert in matter of alcohol. Well, besides alcohol in organic chemistry, because those he knew too well. With full arsenal in his hands, he returned to the living room where he put the drinks on the table. Instantly few hands reached for them.

Hiccup shook his head. He gathered few dirty plates, glasses and cutlery and brought them to the kitchen, where he put them in a sink. The mighty tower wobbled unsteadily from one side to the other. Hiccup eyed it for few second to roll up his sleeves in the end. Someone had to do it anyway, plus he kind of didn’t trust other people’s drunken state’s hands to do this very delicate job.

Besides, Hiccup was used to cleaning equipment after labs. Cleaning Soxhlet extractor* was pain in the ass, but after cleaning a fiftieth test-tube, he started to think that it was a quite calming task.

Hiccup turned on the hot water and started to clean, methodically moving the sponge around the porcelain or glass surface in circular motion.

The voices in the living room were dulled, however if he really wanted, he would hear what they were talking about. But the soft, ecstatic murmur of conversations flowing, moving the waves in the air was soothing him, so he didn’t mind.

Minutes passed. The tower was slowly getting smaller and smaller, but Hiccup knew there were already five or six plates waiting in the living room to be cleaned.

It wasn’t like he didn’t like spending time with his family of friends, but sometimes it was too much. Too many signals coming from every direction, too many voices mingled together, too much action in such short time – it was draining his energy. He needed some alone time, away from all this _too much_ happening around him.

Dish after dish, minute after minute, he felt the tension sweeping away from his body. This day was totally exhausting and it didn’t look like it will end anytime soon. So he needed all the energy (power) he could get. Maybe some kind of accumulator – a voltage source for his circuit components – or even a simple battery.

Hiccup sighed as he slowly lifted his head and turned it from left to right, trying to get rid of the tension inside his neck’s muscles. He was about to return to work when something caught his attention. The window.

He squinted his eyes, staring at the dark sky behind the glass. Maybe not that dark, because it was illuminated by the light coming from windows and streets’ lamps, but this wasn’t what caught his attention. Small, white dots were levitating outside the window.

Hiccup quickly turned off the water, dried his hands and moved to the window. He leaned above the counter and caught the blinds’ slider, lifting louvers up in few swift movements.

It was snowing outside. Pearly, fluffy snowflakes were dancing, swirling in front of the glass, slowly falling down on the ground. Some of them, moved by the wind, got glued to the window’s surface, almost like they wanted to get inside the house.

It was the first snow of this year.

Hiccup stared at it with his lips slightly parted. The snowflakes waved at him from the other side, intertwining with each other as the breeze pushed them in each other directions. They were very big – few particles glued together to form one bigger piece – but it made them look soft. He had an urge to open the window and stick his hand out to touch it, feel the sudden rush of coldness on his skin from the gentle touch of the delicate snow.

It was mesmerizing – the way it was reflecting the light shining at it from almost every direction, like hundreds of prisms thrown into the cold air.

Hiccup felt his chest clench while looking at it. The breath got stuck inside his throat.

“I wonder, if Jack have already seen it…” He mumbled, now almost laying with his upper body on the counter.

Knowing Jack, he would be all over this weather, jumping excitedly and shouting incoherent sentences out of glee. He would probably smile, with mirth glinting in his cerulean orbs. And maybe (just maybe) he wouldn’t grin in the way he almost always do. But maybe he would grin, a little unsure about whether he should do it or not.

Hiccup sighed and put his elbows on the counter, leaning on them to be a little closer to the glass. Few more centimeters and he would bump his nose with the window.

No matter how odd this sounded, he got used to Jack’s presence. His never ending amount of messages, strange emojis, too overjoyed shouts and comments. Weird… few weeks ago (more than a month, how fast time passes) he would do everything to get away from Jackson Overland, glaring at him from five meters away (come on, Jack always blocked the perfect view of Aster) and now Hiccup almost… missed him.

Gosh, that was stupid. How could he miss someone who was almost like a stranger to him? Of course, Hiccup missed Astrid and Fishlegs, but they knew each other for ages, however Jack…

Jack was an enigma. Funny how at first glance he looked like the simplest man on the Earth, but deep inside he was a tangled mess. This was the difference between them. Hiccup purposely hid himself away from people, Jack did it unconsciously.

His hand moved to the pocket, where laid his smartphone. One tap, two, three, combined with a nervous twitch. His fingers relaxed and finally hooked under the fabric, brushing fingertips on the metal.

Hiccup glanced at the corridor, where the living room was throwing a faint gleam onto the panels’ floor. The voices were still vivid, loud and elated. He definitely had time to make a call.

* * *

 

“Jack, can we play on your PlayStation? Can we, can we, can we?”

Jack focused on three pairs of very curious eyes gaping back at him with plead tangoing in them. He took out two plates from the fridge and closed the door with his hip.

“I don’t know, were you good kids this year?” Jack asked, humming first as he maneuvered between them and moved to the living room. The swarm of kids followed his every step.

Emma was the one who asked him, as she was his sister. Just behind her was Tipo, staring at him with his big, black eyes filled with excitement. The procession was closed by his sister – Chaca – who was fiddling with her red dress, but staring at him with small smile and hope written all over her face. The sibling’s black hairs were bouncing with their every step.

Jack only wanted to tease them a little anyway… and to mess with Emma.

“We were!” Tipo shouted, pushing to the front and almost making Jack trip. He gladly made a pirouette, avoiding crashing into him at the last second. “Please!!”

“We were doing dishes for three months!” Chaca begged him, now jumping next to his right side.

“Wasn’t it a penalty, because you broke your grandma’s vase?” Jack glanced at them skeptically.

The siblings blushed deeply and both started to twirl their feet in the ground with their hands put behind their back. Emma looked between her cousins and her brother.

Jack sighed.

“Okay, but no games for adults, okay?” He said, eyeing every member of his family carefully. Last time they had started playing _Dead Space_ and well… the few next nights weren’t too calm for any of them.

“We promise! Thank you Jack! You’re the best!”

“Praise me more!”

But the kids were already running up the stairs, pushing each other gently, probably racing to determine who would reach Jack’s room first.

Jack shook his head, moving finally to the living room where the rest of the family was gathered. On one side Tara’s sister – Tiana was talking with Chicha – North’s brother’s wife. They were leaning close to each other, giggling happily into each other ears and glancing at the men gathered on the other side of table, who were patting each other on the back and laughing joyfully about something. Even Naveen – Tiana’s husband now – looked like he had fun. The first time he had met the Overland’s family he was… kind of taken aback by North’s posture. Jack couldn’t blame him, North was scary at first sight, but after knowing him more, he was the softest person in Burgess. Or on this half of globe.

Now North, Pacha (North’s brother) and Naveen were hurled together, bumping each other knees and telling stories from the past. When Jack walked inside and put the plates on the table, immediately two manly hands reached for the food. Well, good that everyone brought some food, because Jack had a feeling most of it will be eaten by tomorrow morning.

“Jack, sit with us for a while and relax.”

Jack turned his head to the source of the voice on his left.

Chicha was staring at him with soft smile gracing her pink lips. Her thin fingers were embracing white cup with hot coffee steaming from it. Her black hair were put in a messy, curly bun, held together by a green pin.

Jack actually liked to act as a ‘waiter’ during their family meetings. Usually it was his mother and Tiana doing it, but Jack liked to stretch his limbs from time to time. Besides, it was helping him clean his head from the hot and dizzy atmosphere in the living room.

He grabbed a chair and sat on it, turning his body to the two women sitting at one end of the table.

“Much better.” She added and took a smile sip.

“So how’s school?” Tiana immediately asked, peaking from behind Chicha and staring at Jack with curious stare. Ebony, swirling locks fell to her forehead, which she pushed with a huff, curling her painted lips.

He groaned. Of course, they had to ask about school first. Why couldn’t they ask how was his Steam account going after Steam Winter Sale?

“Oh come on, you know we have to cross the typical questions off the list, so bear with it and just answer us.” Tiana said. The small chuckle tingled at the end of the sentence.

“It’s fine.” Jack finally mumbled. “Not good, but not too bad either.” He had some bad grades from few subjects, but he had worse times in his life. “I actually got B+ from Math!” This was worth pointing out.

Everyone in their family knew about his problems with that subject. And they were very familiar with Professor Black, mostly from Jack’s stories he just loved to share with everybody.

Chicha’s hand trembled and she looked lost between clapping her hands and patting him on the back. She quickly put the cup down – a trail of brown liquid streamed down on its side. Her silver, thin bracelets rustled as she put her palms on his shoulder.

“Jack, that is amazing!” She said, stretching her mouth in a big grin.

Jack reciprocated the smile.

“We’re very proud of you.” Tiana added.

“T-thanks…” Jack scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Then Hiccup’s face popped in front of his eyes. “Although I had help from a friend of mine in this matter.”

“Oh, someone was able to teach our untamed Jackson?” Tiana lifted her eyebrow, smirking at him. She put her elbow on the table and put her chin on her hand, so she was able to look at him more freely and jab something into his pride. “We must congratulate him… or her…”

“Him, definitely a male.” Jack could already see Hiccup pouting inside his head, so he snickered under his nose. “But don’t worry girls, it took him some time to put something in this head!” He knocked onto his forehead.

Chicha laughed, but Tiana shook her head.

“I think it’s just hard to break through your wall of laziness and rejection for learning this particular subject.” Chicha finally said, grabbing one black lock and curling it on her finger. Her green nail polish reflected the bright light shimmering above them. “I know you never really liked Math.”

“I don’t hate it from the bottom of my heart, but yeah, it’s totally my Achilles’ heel.” Jack sighed, leaning more comfortably on his chair and hiding his palms inside the pockets of his blue blouse.

“You don’t have to be good at everything.” Tiana tilted her head. “We could gladly use your helping hand in our restaurant.”

Two years ago Jack had actually spent the winter holidays at his mother’s family house where he was helping her sister in her restaurant. He had learned quite few recipes from watching back then. Not to mention, he had a feeling Tiana enjoyed his company in the kitchen (and always called for him whenever she was making dinner to spend some quality time together).

“I’ll think about it.” Jack nodded. It was always a good idea for a part-time job during summer or upcoming winter break. “If we already covered my part, how are your lives going then?”

Chicha started to talk about her kids and how much problems they were bringing her, especially when they were in school. But who could help it? They were unruly, because they were simply kids (and because they had the Overlands’ blood in them). They were in this age when you just want to play and don’t worry about anything else, so Jack couldn’t blame them. Besides, he was also like that, even now…

Tiana then told them about few weird customers and clients they had in their restaurant. She usually was a peaceful, calm woman, but when something irritated her, she could turn into a beast with fire in her eyes. And definitely some customers could bring out her hidden demons outside which wasn’t well... good, but very spectacular.

Jack loved to talk with his family and catch up with everything they had gone through. Especially when they were talking so emotionally about it – like Tiana, who now was gesticulating, clenching and unclenching her fists while waving them around (even though she wasn’t doing it often).

She finished her story with a loud sigh. She massaged groggily her eyes, like only talking and remembering some customers made her totally exhausted.

Chicha leaned and patted her on the back.

“There, there, gladly they won’t return to your restaurant anymore…” She said in shushed tone.

“I hope so…” Tiana lifted her face and put on back a smile, although this one was more tired than the previous ones. She reached with her fork and grabbed a cake. “But we finished the full round. So now Jack it is your turn…”

“Oh no.” He said, grinning. He put hands behind his back and balanced on the back’s legs of the chair. What would be next? Question about his friends? His future? Emma? Maybe…

“So do you have someone special in your life?”

Jack not so nicely (and gracefully) choked on his saliva. It wasn’t his fault this question took him by a surprise and the liquid didn’t go into this hole it should definitely go! So he started to hit himself hard on the chest, leaning forward and learning from the beginning how to breath.

“Don’t die, Jack!” North laughed on the other side of the table, but did nothing to help him.

Gladly, Chicha was more helpful with her slow pats between his shoulder blades and soothing and calm voice next to his ear.

After a minute or two Jack was good to go, which meant he was able to breathe properly. Few droplets of tears appeared in the corner of his eyes, but he brushed them with the sleeve of his blouse.

He should actually expect it. This was his curious family he was talking… erm thinking about!

“Everything okay?” Tiana asked, sitting back on her chair. She had stood up, ready to run to him if something happened.

“Yes, yes, nothing to worry about.” Jack exhaled loudly. Breathing was beautiful actually. “It just took me aback… your question I mean…”

Chicha also sat down, humming loudly.

“Don’t think that by choking you will escape answering it.” She finally said, smirking at him.

“I wouldn’t dream about it.” Jack actually would. If there was one topic he was uncomfortable with, it was definitely about his love-emotional state. He knew his family was just interested in his life, but...

Yeah, but what?

“Oh, we know you would do that. And don’t suddenly yell that something is burning in the kitchen. We know nothing is being currently cooked right now.” Tiana lifted her eyebrow proudly, daring to almost say otherwise. “So now spill the beans! Judging by your reactions, you definitely have some sweet news for us~!”

“I, unfortunately, need to crush your hopes and dreams right now.” Jack stated, analyzing every word in his brain before speaking, choosing the perfect ones to use. He put his hand on his neck, scratching the skin near his hair. “Because I don’t have anyone.”

“Really?” Chicha inquired, grabbing her fork and taking some small piece of cake onto it too.

“Yes, really.” Jack said, rolling his eyes.

“How about a crush?”

There was a small, tini-tiny hesitation in his mind. Or maybe a short circuit inside his brain, almost invisible to the outside world, but Jack knew he actually took a while to answer.

“Also no.”

Both Chicha and Tiana eyed him curiously, before turning to each other and giggling like teenagers that just caught their parents smooching in the kitchen.

Jack didn’t like it. Not even a bit.

“W-what?” He asked, laying his hands down on his trousers and brushing them. Was he sweating?

“Oh, noth-“

Then his phone rang, freeing him from the sudden uncomfortable situation. However, after a second, he wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing, but he was glad someone was rescuing him from this misery.

Jack jumped to his feet, startled by the sudden sound, but trying very fast to take out the phone. He glanced at the screen, but didn’t register the caller ID before he was looking back at his family:

“Sorry, I need to pick it up!”

Everything definitely was better than listening to this… odd giggles, which were definitely related to him in some weird kind of way. He didn’t know the source of it, but he wasn’t keen on knowing it either.

Shuffling quickly to the hallway, far away from the curious eyes and ears, Jack finally was met with silence. Well, as much silence as he could get in the Overlands’ house anyway. The voices were still audible, but shushed down due to the walls surrounding him.

Jack leaned on the wall near the stairs. He brushed his finger on the screen and put the device near his ear.

“Hello?” He gasped out. Wow, he didn’t know he could get so tired just from running away from the living room.

“Uhm hey…”

And suddenly, seriously, he could swear that his heart skipped a beat just by hearing this voice. Jack’s hand twitched and mouth opened, but only after a second or two (or maybe even three) he was able to say something:

“Oh, hey!” Jack responded, shuddering and standing straight. His hand maneuvered to his neck. “Hey!” He repeated one more time, for what he wanted to facepalm himself.

“Ooookaay…” Hiccup – because who else could that be – hummed unsurely into his phone on the other side. “Everything okay? You know I can just call later if you are busy-”

“No, no, no, I’m totally not busy. Actually you just rescued me from my family’s interrogation.“ Jack huffed. His back hit the wall behind him once again. “So I should thank you.”

“Oh.” Hiccup mumbled. “Oh, okay. No problem then.” There was a huff and soft rustling sound (maybe Hiccup was changing his position). “Was it so bad? The interrogation, I mean.”

Jack chuckled, feeling his heart almost in his throat. Strange.

“Well, you know, it’s getting quite boring and embarrassing after a while.” Which was  true. “And kind of… too much.”

“Too much? For you? How could something be _too much_ for always energetic Jackson Frost?” The boy on the other side mocked a disbelieve. Jack could almost see Hiccup touching his chest, bewildered by this information.

“Ha-ha, very funny, smartass.” Jack grumbled half-hearted. The hand had left his neck and now was hanging limp near his body.

“You know you can’t run away from the inevitable?”

“But I can hope that they will find some other victim till then.”

There was a short pause before Hiccup’s next reply.

“Okay, seems about right.”

Victory was always good.

“I know I’m a genius, you don’t need to flatter me.” A groan made Jack smile. “Sooo, what’s up?”

“Well, Christmas for starter.” Hiccup huffed and it looked like he jumped onto something. Maybe some counter or table. “And a lot of broken glasses, if you are very curious.”

Jack tilted his head up, looking at the dark ceiling above him. The loud shouts of his cousins and sister came through the wall, almost shaking the monuments in their wake.

“Very curious. So care to elaborate what really happened?” Jack moved his weight to his other leg, searching for more comfortable position. Nevertheless, the cold surface behind him was making his back ache.

But he would bear with it.

“Just it turned out we are spending Christmas with Thorstons, so…” Hiccup trailed just in time for terrible shatter to come from his side and definitely a curse following soon after together with a burst of laugher. Weird mix. “Yeah, this happens.”

Jack chuckled. There was weird sensation resonating inside his chest, but he brushed this feeling away for now, enjoying the simple conversation and hearing the teen’s voice.

“For me it sounds like fun.” Then after a while he added. “Will they be okay without you there to look after everything?”

“No worries, Snotlout is surprisingly cleaning and helping a lot today.” The auburn haired boy huffed and then it sounded like he moved his phone to his other ear. “Why do you ask? Want to get rid of me so soon?”

His throat tightened for a second. Or maybe it was because of the dry air around him…

“No…” He said hoarsely and then coughed to clear his throat a little bit. “It looks to me that you’ve been avoiding me all day long and not the other way around.”

“Ah, yeah, sorry, this day was quite… hectic…” Hiccup mumbled, sounding sincerely guilty.

Jack didn’t mean it honestly.

“No kidding? Twins and hectic? Pfff, it must be an easy job.” He quickly started speaking, like he wanted to smear the last sentence he had said. Christmas wasn’t the time to feel culpable.

“Oh, hardly har har. And I thought I was the sarcastic one in this relationship.”

Jack’s stomach suddenly clenched. This sudden pain appeared for a second and then it was gone, making Jack think he almost imagined it.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not planning to take your title away. Besides, I like my ‘best-boyfriend-ever’ title more, thank you very much.” Jack chirped anyway, rising his head to the ceiling and closing his eyes.

“Of course, your self-proclaimed title...” Jack was almost one hundred percent sure Hiccup was rolling his eyes right now, while speaking. Maybe he was even wearing a smirk on his lips. Jack could only scoff at the boy’s response, before Hiccup continued. “On the other side… did you already look out the window?”

That was… very off-topic.

“Erm, no…” He scratched his cheek. After his family came, he was on never ending trip between living room and kitchen, so he had no time to look out of the window properly.

What was there to pick Hiccup’s interest so much that he had to call Jack to share this information?

“Then do it.”

Well…

With a loud sigh, he moved from the wall. Jack directed his steps to the backdoor, allowing him to step into their backyard, now empty of all colorful flowers decorating it during spring and summer. His hand landed on the chilly door’s handle, which he pushed down and then opened the door.

The cold wind toned down the heat from his face first thing after opening the door, however the sudden gust was so strong that he had to close his eyes. Just in time to feel something soft landing on his eyelids. Almost like a raindrop, but more delicate.

He quickly opened his eyes.

It was snowing. The giant, mushy, fluffy snowflakes were slowly dancing and swirling in the sky, step by step, inch by inch covering the frozen ground beneath his feet. There was even a thin coat of white quilt already thrown upon the grass in his backyard – untouched, just like freshly made bed.

He stepped outside. The sound of snow crunching beneath his slippers soothed his heart, which now pounded inside his chest from the sudden rush of excitement in his vines.

“So…” Hiccup’s voice melted the air near Jack’s ear.

“It’s snowing…”

“I know. I though you may be happy to kno-“

But Jack didn’t let the auburn haired boy finish his sentence as he shouted happily:

“It’s snowing!” He was almost sure some of his neighbors heard him and rolled their eyes at the behavior. But come on! He was called Jack Frost! He adored snow!

Jack laughed as he made another step, already feeling his slippers getting wet. He tilted his head up, where tiny, white spots moved, swam on the dark sky, twinkling like tiny stars.

“I knew you would like it.” Hiccup exhaled loudly.

Like it? Jack’s heart soared at the idea of seeing snow for the first time this year. And he kind of couldn’t believe he wasn’t the first one to notice it. Not once or twice he suddenly had shouted in the middle of the class, pointing with excited smile at the window.

This was part of his inner child he never lost.

“Jack? You okay, or did you faint form all this excitement?”

He chuckled one more time, putting his hand on his forehead and brushing his fringe away.

“I’m okay! It’s just… you know… snowing!”

Hiccup groaned.

“You repeated it like… three times already.” He said, but the soft tingle of chuckle could be heard at the end.

It warmed Jack’s insides.

“I know, but I get super excited about snow and winter in general, if you didn’t notice it by now.” Jack responded, letting go of his white locks. He glanced back at the bench standing near the backdoor. Half of it was covered in snow, but Jack brushed it away with his hand and sat down.

“You’re not called Frost for nothing.”

“Come on! How can you not be excited about snow?” Jack asked, leaning and putting his head on the wall behind him. He closed his eyes, enjoying the cold, but clear air around him.

“I don’t know, maybe because I need to clean the driveway and not to mention I slip like… every five meters?” Hiccup actually sounded tired and not too overjoyed about the idea of very close future.

“You really have bad luck, don’t you?”

“Thank you for reminding me about it.” Oh, the sarcastic butt was back. Jack almost missed him.

“No problemo! Always at your service.”

Hiccup snorted and then shuffled one more time. Jack had no problem imagining him pushing his legs closer to his chest and throwing his oversized sweater over them.

Jack in the meantime enjoyed the soft touch of fresh snow on his skin. The snowflakes lasted there for few second to turn into tiny droplets, running down and disappearing in his clothes or falling to the ground.

The silence that embraced them was comforting. Spending full evening with his family was a bless, but it was draining his energy quite quickly. Especially as he had to race his cousins and sister to the kitchen, so there would be some cookies left for him too.

He didn’t know how he missed those simple conversations. Talking with Hiccup was different than talking with his other friends. The small silent pauses were normal and not uncomfortable. Jack didn’t actually have to speak to feel like he was participating – that he was a part of something.

“Soo…” Hiccup whispered, starting with very low hum, like he wasn’t sure if he was able to speak or not. “How is your Christmas Eve going?”

“Between kitchen and living room.” Jack answered. He opened his eyes and looked at the dark sky above his head, illuminated by the yellow light coming from the street’s lamps. “This year it was my time to be a waiter.” He put his one leg on the bench and put his chin on it. “And let me tell you that my family definitely like to eat, so I already made like a hundred of trips. Add to this looking out for my cousins and sister and you have to watch out for everything. Literally.”

“Seems like a harsh job.” Hiccup commented.

“Not as harsh as taking care of Ruff and Tuff I assume.”

“Oh no, they are pretty decent. They sit in one place and drink, so almost no harm done. Not counting the huge amount of cutlery and glasses already broken of course.” He sighed for what felt like already twentieth time this evening.

“Somehow I am not surprised by that.” Jack mumbled, pushing his face into the material of his jeans.

It was a miracle Hiccup was still able to understand him.

“Me neither. I got used to it… however horrific that sounds.” There was an audible shudder on the other side.

“Very horrific.” Jack nodded. Then something flickered inside his head – a tiny shimmer somewhere in the back of his mind. “Do you have any plans for the holidays?”

“Besides Fishlegs coming over for few days then no… I don’t think so. Well I kind of have to finish my gravimetric analysis* at our school lab, but it shouldn’t take too long. I think…”

Jack rolled his eyes, lifting his head a little. Seriously? School? During Christmas’ break?! Come on! When will Hiccup have time for real fun?

He had to fix it quickly.

“Nerd.” Jack whispered with every intention of being heard.

And Hiccup of course did. The sound of him scoffing and groaning would made almost everyone laugh. Jack maybe got addicted to make him act like that. Who could judge him? It was ado…funny! Very funny! Totally funny!

“Someone also need to be smarter in this relationship.”

“Oh, classic burn, my dear.” Jack grinned. Yep, never going to get bored with replies like that. “You wounded me deeply…”

“I know you’re smiling, so don’t lie to me.” Hiccup quickly retorted. “When you’re happy your voice sound different, so you won’t get away with this.”

What?

His mind short-circuited for a tic*. Did he hear right? He had too. Jack’s hearing abilities were top notch, so there was no way he heard it wrong.

But how can Hiccup knew when he was smiling just by analyzing his tone of voice…

“Am I wrong?” The boy asked unsurely.

Jack cleared his throat, feeling the cold air sneaking into his lungs.

“Nope, you hit right on spot. But I will act like I heard nothing and interpret your answer that you’re not doing anything then…” Here comes the fun part. “And you know… you promised me you will play some games with me~.”

Hiccup grunted. An even bigger smile bloomed on Jack’s face and he bit into his knuckles to not start laughing there, feeling his heart shuddering inside his ribcage with joy.

Of course, he knew Hiccup was afraid of horror games. Even though the boy never had said it straight, it was pretty visible from his reactions. The way he bit his bottom lip with his hand reaching to massage his arm, the way he avoided looking at Jack and oh, don’t let him remind the pained look in his eyes.

Totally afraid of horror games.

Was it bad that he wanted to see Hiccup getting scared? Maybe a little. But seeing people yelping and shouting when jumpscare appeared was very funny.

“I remember…” He groused. “Unfortunately…”

“Sweet, how Monday sounds to you?”

Okay, the sudden feeling of anticipation which spread over him was maybe… no, was definitely odd. Jack knew he was excited about the idea of playing games with Hiccup (and spend time together), but to this extent?

Jack stared intently into the horizon, or to be more precise at the blue fence standing proudly several meters away. His teeth nibbled onto his bottom lip.

“Unfortunately, I’m free…” It seems like it pained Hiccup to say this three words.

“So it is a date.” The words automatically slipped from his lips. A small tease, a joke, something to lift up the mood.

So why now something moved inside of him?

Date – he had said this word already few times in Hiccup’s presence. And every time earlier he just brushed it off. One word, one sentence and it was gone, a blink of a memory inside his brain and poof. No second thoughts.

But now…

“Yeah, of course…” The sarcasm was basically dripping from the phone. Definitely accompanied by an eyes’ roll. “Just for the records, I will blame you, if I am not able to sleep at nights after that afternoon.”

“I will take the risk.” The answer that Hiccup could always call him then died on his lips, as Jack bit his tongue in time. Better not to say that.

“Oh, how considerate of you.” Hiccup snorted and then sighed, shuffling a little, searching for more comfortable position. He probably was also sitting next to a window.

Jack rested his cheek on his knee, hugging his leg closer to himself.

Silences were something no one could avoid. He often had spent time with Aster not even uttering a single word to each other and it was perfectly fine. Jack was known for being a chattering mess, but he also enjoyed those times.

Conversations with Hiccup often had those holes – small spares of time allowing you to breath and relax, not particular even thinking of what to say next. Leisurely pace. Jack never thought he could enjoy it so much.

Then surprisingly it was Hiccup who popped the bubble around them once again.

“Uhm… maybe it’s not the best time to say it… because you know I should say it at the very beginning… but you know…” There was a small inhale and rustling of the clothes. “Better late than never so… Merry Christmas.”

Jack had to process this words for few second before the meaning really got to him. Then he simply had to chuckle at that. Yeah, there were things important and some a little bit more. Apparently showing Jack snow was more important than wishing him a good holidays.

And Jack… kind of liked and appreciated it.

“Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too, you dork. I wanted to say it earlier, but you didn’t pick up.” Jack said, smiling to himself. His eyes followed random snowflake swirling in the air. He reached with his hand, hoping it would land on it, but the independent snowflake dodged his palm gracefully.

“Uhm, yeah, sorry about that. You know…”

“I understand, you don’t have to apologize.”

“I know, but…” Hiccup started, but stopped midsentence. Jack could almost hear his breath hitching inside his throat, followed by a sudden inhale. Almost like he wasn’t sure whether to say the next words or not.

“But?” Jack nudged, putting his chin on his knee.

Small exhale, followed by a huff. Then something moved, but it didn’t sound like Hiccup changed his position. More like he fiddled with the hem of his sweater or sleeve.

Why was he nervous?

“Bu-“

“I just didn’t want for you to think you’re less important to me than them, okay?”

A sudden bullet shot right through his chest and heart, paralyzing it for a brief second and stopping his breath. Or maybe it was a light bolt hitting right in the center, making him shiver with electricity running down his spine and limbs.

“I’m sorry! That must have sounded weird! It wasn’t supposed to sound like that! I mean, of course I know you have tons of friends, so a call from me doesn’t mean much, but I think you’re this type of person who care for each person individually. And you tried to call me at least two times, but I couldn’t pick up! Seriously, Tuffnut just broke the salad-bowl on the second try and I couldn’t allow people to walk on shattered glass mixed with vinaigrette, so you know…”

Oh no, Hiccup was babbling one more time. His sentences were barely glued to each other, and there was a sudden rush to his way of speaking, but the honesty was literally emanating from him.

And Jack couldn’t control the sudden thunderstorm inside his ribcage and mind. So with hot face, he pressed his mouth to his bended leg and mumbled:

“Hiccup?”

And the long, incoherent waterfall of sentences stopped abruptly with one breathless word following after.

“Yes?”

Jack couldn’t understand himself now much – the feelings, the thoughts, the reactions. It all was a mess inside his brain and he needed some time to properly think about what was happening to and with him.

But he was sure something definitely changed.

“Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m super sorry for the delay, but seriously Uni held me captive. Like seriously I had no time for myself and when I did, I was too tired to do anything. But now finals are coming, so I hope I maybe will find some time xDDD. And a little bit late Happy New Year. Let’s hope 2017 will be better than 2016!
> 
> Okay, so there is not much science and nerds fact, because most of this chapter was written from Jack’s point of view:  
> * Soxhlet extractor – it is typically used when the desired compound has a limited solubility in a solvent, and the impurity is insoluble in that solvent. It allows for unmonitored and unmanaged operation while efficiently recycling a small amount of solvent to dissolve a larger amount of material.  
> * Gravimetric analysis – a set of methods in analytical chemistry for the quantitative determination of an analyte based on the mass of a solid.
> 
> And other facts:  
> * Jungle Speed – best game ever, but very… very brutal. Seriously, if you have chance, play it xD!  
> * Marina – character from Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.  
> * Climbing ladder near the highway – okay, so I wonder if someone got it. It is a reference to 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, where the main character went down the ladder near a highway and by doing it the character stepped into alternative reality.  
> * Tic – a time slice in Voltron: Legendary Defender.
> 
> Answers to comments:  
> Wendell_The_Fierce – Oh gosh, I’m happy then. I really try to update as fast as I could, but sometimes (most of the time) it is too hard D: I want for Hiccup to realize it too, but he is a doofus and very thick, so it will take some time. And I love writing simple interactions, I hope it gives this fanfic this realistic part :3. High five, science is the best!  
> Blitz_lili – Haha sometimes I have to search for perfect emoticon to use in this situation. And I’m happy that you like the slow-build. At first I wanted for this fic to only have like ten chapters, but we are at 8 and nothing happened so I don’t know how I wanted to do that xD.
> 
> Hope to see you soon! Thank you :3!


	8. Hess's law

**Hess’s law** – the total enthalpy change during the complete course of a chemical reaction is the same whether the reaction is made in one step or in several steps.

 

What if he doesn’t like it? What if he laughs right in his face? Or worse… acts like he like it and then throw it away? Oh no. That was stupid idea.

“Relax Hic, everything will be okay.”

“I’m not nervous. What are you talking about? I’m perfectly normal! It’s just the wind!”

Astrid rolled her eyes, totally amused by this whole situation. And even though Hiccup couldn’t see her mouth, because it was hidden behind giant, red scarf, he was sure she was smirking at him.

“First, I never said you’re nervous, only asked you to loosen up. Which you’re not doing.” She patted his shoulder. Yep, they were tensed. But seriously, it was freezing outside, so he could totally blame the weather for it. “And you’re babbling which means you’re pretty stressed.” Okay, this one Hiccup couldn’t blame on the weather.

But seriously, after a second thought, buying flowers… well, not flowers, but kind of like tiny trees at the beginning of the winter was well… plain stupid and embarrassing. He should have bought cooking books! They would be useful, but no, Hiccup had to listen to this weird gut feeling he had and buy fricking lilacs.

At least he hoped that a saleswoman didn’t sell him wrong colors.

“I’m just curious, if Jack likes it.” Hiccup said, correcting the hold on the pot in his hands. Even though he had gloves on, his fingers quickly started to get cold and numb.

“Come on, it’s Frost! He would probably be happy if you gave him a bubble gum.” Astrid noted and then sneezed loudly. She brushed her nose with the sleeve. “Ugh, I was all over snow few days ago, but now it’s too much.”

Hiccup had to agree with her. Even though the thin layer of beautiful, white coat was nice for a change at Christmas’ Eve, now it was getting too huge for comfort. And his poor muscles were screaming in agony in the mornings when he had to clean the driveway.

“Totally agree on that matter.” Hiccup nodded into his own scarf. Gladly, they weren’t too far away from Jack’s house by now.

“What did your father say when he saw you bringing those lilacs home?” Astrid asked instead, keeping the conversation going.

“Nothing. I think he didn’t even see them, they stood in my room and you know he rarely visits it.” Maybe it kind of was Hiccup’s fault, because once when his Dad had walked inside he almost had stepped on a project Hiccup had spread over his floor. And Hiccup kind of had yelled at Stoick for almost destroying it? “Besides, it looks like he has other things on his mind.”

“Like work things?” Astrid stuck her tongue, making a landing place for snowflakes.

“No, other things.” Hiccup muttered, observing her friend swallowing the fallen snow. “Ugh, you know how dirty this water is?”

Astrid shrugged. The tree under her arm swayed to the side, which she commented with a small ‘whoops’, but quickly secured it back in her embrace.

“Don’t really care.” She said. “And what do you mean by other things?”

“I’m not sure. I think this is about his friend.”

“Gobber?”

“No.” Actually, he only once had seen his Dad and Gobber being in an argument and he had to say he didn’t miss that time. Seriously, this was Armageddon coming into their house. But gladly, it ended as quickly as it started, with no fatalities in friendships. “His other friend.”

“Ruff’s and Tuff’s dad?”

“No, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t talking about them.” Besides, neither of Thornston’s parents were recently or like ever in jail, so yeah, definitely not them. “I don’t know his name. He didn’t tell me that much…”

“Hey, but it means your Dad talked with you about his problems, right?” Astrid stepped closer and bumped his shoulder with her own.

“Yeah, he did, but it sucked.” Hiccup exhaled loudly. The air which he puffed into the scarf fogged his glasses. “I couldn’t do much about it… I didn’t even know what to say! Nothing seemed right! I just mumbled something and now I’m not even sure what I exactly said.” Another groan escaped his lips. “I’m terrible at this.”

“Well you’re definitely not going to be a therapist, that’s for sure.” Astrid nodded, not even looking at him, but staring at the sky covered in the dark clouds, pouring the freshly made snow onto them. “But I’m sure you did fine. Maybe he only needed someone who would listen to him. And sometimes your awkward way of saying things is exactly what people need.”

“Was that supposed to lift up my spirits, because I’m not sure?”

“Yeah, it was.” When Hiccup glanced at her, she quickly shrugged – the movement barely visible under the cover of thick, green coat. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m not cut out to be a psychologist either.”

Hiccup snorted. Yeah, that would be pretty bad. Astrid’s way of lifting someone’s mood up was equal to a hit to the stomach, accompanied by a loud ‘pull yourself together!’ and a lot of shaking someone until he or she would throw up. And even though it didn’t work on everyone, for some people it was enough.

Although the bruises after it were bad.

“Definitely not, but thanks…” Hiccup added. He darted his head higher to look at the houses they were passing. The bright building not too far away immediately caught his attention. It was hard to miss it between the dulled houses surrounding it. “We’re here.”

“Oh!” Astrid looked at the building curiously, nodding to herself. She never was in Jack’s house, but today Hiccup had asked her to help him get the gift here. “Wow, even his house has to stand out.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes. Jack wasn’t like that. He liked to stand out, of course, but not in the mean way like he wanted to be better than everyone else. He just liked people noticing him.

“At least it’s easy to find it.” Hiccup turned and walked up few steps directing him to the front door.

His hand automatically moved to the hidden bell under the colorful chain, when Astrid put the tree down and spoke:

“Okay, you manage on your own from now on.” She huffed, brushing her forehead with her coat.

Hiccup’s hand stopped in the middle of trying to ring the doorbell.

“You’re not going inside with me?” He asked.

“And interrupt your lovey-dovey reunion with your precious boyfriend? No, thank you~!” She prolonged the last word, almost sing-sanging it. Seriously, Hiccup wanted to jump at her and cover her mouth with his own palm. Someone could hear her! North and Emma could hear her!

“Astrid!” Hiccup hissed, feeling the tree swaying in his hands so hard, he had to put it down. “You know it’s not like that!”

“Oh, I know.” Astrid said, hiding her hands inside the pockets and leaning to Hiccup. “Or do you prefer me teasing you about Aster then?”

“Neither! Both options are terrible.” He mumbled, already feeling his cheeks turning red. He was so glad he could blame it on the weather outside.

“Okay, I’m going!” Astrid nudged his arm and stepped down from the stairs. “Remember to use protection!”

Hiccup literally wanted to dissolve right here, right there.

“Astrid!”

“I know you love me.” And with sending him a quick kiss (which Hiccup hoped was taken away by the wind), she walked away, whistling some Christmas’ tune under her nose.

Hiccup shook his head, following her silhouette for few more seconds. Seriously, he only hoped no one from Overlands’ house heard her, other way this would get pretty embarrassing.

With another huff he finally turned around and lifted his hand to ring the doorbell.

* * *

Okay, so Jack had been thinking… well, about himself. No, that sounded wrong. He hadn’t been thinking about himself in that kind of bashful way. To be honest he had been thinking about… more over about someone else, but also about himself

Or maybe to be more precise he had been thinking about his behavior – inside and outside, because those were two different things. Well, maybe they weren’t that different in the end, as Jack wasn’t the type to think before doing something. Quite the opposite.

When he started to wonder like that maybe he hadn’t been thinking about his behavior, but his reactions? No, well, yes, he had been thinking about how he reacted nowadays to a certain someone, but somehow this word didn’t fit there.

Scratch that.

But he had been thinking about something that was happening to him. Or maybe with him? Jack wasn’t sure anymore.

However he had been thinking and that was important. Mostly he had been thinking during evenings and nights, because it was the only times during which he was able to take a breath. Besides, nights were made for thinking, right? Right…

Or at least a lot of poets had said that? Yes? No?

Actually why it was so easy to think at nights? Was it because of the silence and calmness spreading over the world, when everyone else was sleeping? Or maybe because it felt like the time stopped, allowing you to take a small break? Or maybe because some parts of you were still filled with emotions given to you by the day?

Jack was moving away from the main topic, wasn’t he?

So he had been thinking about the way he had acted and about thoughts that had appeared in his head nowadays. And he had been often thinking about it at nights, when everyone else was asleep, so he had some time for himself and…

Okay he had been thinking about Hiccup and what changed in Jack!

The white haired teen sighed heavily, massaging his forehead and pausing a game he was playing. No, he couldn’t focus right now, not when he was minutes away from having a guest.

There was no denying that there was a slight difference in the way he reacted to Hiccup’s messages and phone calls now. And the way he enjoyed talking with him, spending time together, teasing him and well… Of course, Jack loved to do all of that with his other friends, but Hiccup…

Well, Jack’s heart didn’t skip a beat whenever someone just wrote to him, so that was an obvious fact he couldn’t deny. And he was no idiot. Maybe he was a math idiot, but he wasn’t idiot like that in this emotional and feelings matter. He definitely was better in it than Hiccup.

So he had few suspicions. Or maybe, in the end, he got one suspicion, because erm… the others sounded dumb.

So Jack maybe… just maybe… it was only a possibility that he was starting to feel something more than a simple best-buddies friendship. But it was only an idea, a hypothesis, which could and could not be confirmed with a positive result.

Because this confirmation needed more data. Jack needed more data, so he could work with them to get proper results. Maybe even do an analysis of errors*…

He still had time to think about it. He didn’t have to act urgently.

Now he simply was happy that Hiccup would visit him and there was nothing wrong with it. Plus, he wanted to give the boy his Christmas’ present, which was wrapped in a colorful paper and waiting patiently under clothes in the wardrobe.

Jack exited the game and looked at the time. Coming to this, Hiccup should be…

The bell finally rang in the house, almost startling him in his seat.

… Here by now. It looked like Mister Perfect was two minutes late.

Jack jumped from his seat and ran out of them room, because he already heard someone shuffling to the front door, planning to open it before him.

“I’ve got it!” He shouted, jumping three stairs in one go.

Gladly, now it wasn’t Emma who moved to the door, but North, who only shrugged as Jack landed gracefully on the first floor.

He stopped only once in front of the mirror to tap down his wild hair and then took a deep breath while opening the door, just to be met face to face with a… tree?

What the heck?

Jack was only a little bit taken aback by it, but he quickly shook his head when Hiccup’s face peeked from behind the branches to look at him with glinting eyes.

“Uhm, hey Jack. Mind giving me a helping hand?” He sniffed loudly at the end.

“No, of course not!” Jack caught the potted plant from the teen’s hand and moved from the doorway, allowing for Hiccup to walk inside.

And the auburn haired boy did walk inside, however after picking another plant. Okay, that was a little bit off. Maybe he was supposed to get them somewhere or was on the way from getting them?

Hiccup walked inside, put the tree down and took off his shoes. Taking the rest of his armory took some time, but gladly after few minutes everything was secured on the hook.

“Is there that cold?” Jack asked, noticing the redness of Hiccup’s nose as he brushed it from time to time. Jack corrected the hold of the plant in his hands.

While waiting for Hiccup, he got some time to look at the few remaining leaves hanging onto branches. Lilac, definitely a lilac. Jack loved their flowers, which reminded him that he wanted to buy few to their backyard.

Maybe he should hint it to his father or ask Hiccup where he had bought those.

“I know you’re immune to cold, but it doesn’t mean other people are.” Hiccup responded, grabbing the second plant and lifting it up.

“I’ll assume then that it is freezing outside.” Jack said, passing the boy and moving to the stairs.

“You’ll assuming right then.” Hiccup mumbled. When they were in the middle of the stairs Hiccup leaned above the railing and greeted North and Emma who were sitting in the living room.

They greeted him back, but quickly returned to a movie they both were watching. Oh, that’s why Emma didn’t run to the door. It was actually pretty convenient.

They walked inside his room, where Jack put down the plant near the heater, so it wouldn’t get too cold. Even though he liked coldness, his room was quite warm.

Hiccup put the lilac down, groaning heavily. Then he straightened his back with a sigh.

“Soooo, what are those?” Jack asked, pointing to the vegetal siblings standing close or even almost leaning on each other.

“Oh…” Hiccup jumped and looked to the side, clearly avoiding Jack’s stare. His hand rubbed the other shoulder.

Seriously, was this really abashing for Hiccup or what? It got Jack curious, especially as the teen started to nibble on his bottom lip, which meant he was pretty embarrassed. Did he just steal them from somewhere? No, of course not. Maybe it was supposed to be a present for someone? Then this would explain the sudden rosy color in his cheeks. Then for who? Jack had hard times imagining Astrid taking care of those lilacs. Snotlout and twins were also out of the question. So maybe Fishlegs? But how would the boy transport two trees to his own house few hours away from Burgess? No, so it had to be someone else. But who…

Then maybe… maybe Aster?

Jack frowned at this though, but quickly soothed his wrinkles when he heard Hiccup’s low mumbles mixed with short glances at Jack.

“Well… those are…” Hiccup started, only to stop and take a short, spastic breath. “Well… this is a Christmas’ present… from me…” His hand maneuvered to land on his nape, where it stayed, not really doing anything in particular. “To you…” He muttered, one more time glancing at Jack, however quickly averting his eyes, when Jack did stare at him back.

Wait, his brain just suddenly got disconnected from the rest of his body. Rebooting, rebooting!

“For me?” Jack repeated, swallowing hard.

Hiccup nodded.

“Uhm… yeah…”

“These are for me?” Jack pointed at the siblings standing and cuddling together near the heater.

Hiccup hung his head with his hands slipping down to hang limp near his body. The blush still adorned the cheeks, but now it spread to his neck, covering it with cherry smudges.

“Yeah, sorry, well… it’s just Aster once told me that you’re interested in gardening, so I thought you will maybe like those, so I bought them for you, but well…” Hiccup lifted his head and pushed higher the glasses which had slipped down. “… I mean… now I’m not sure, you probably prefer something different, but it’s too late… so I hope you at least like them a little bit…”

Jack stared totally taken aback by it all. Well, he indeed loved plants and gardening and everything related to it, however it wasn’t a secret. More like he rarely spoke about it, because it’s just… wasn’t so him. Besides, who lately was interested in what kind of ground should be put under larches for them to grow healthy? Yep, totally nobody.

Even Tooth and Aster barely withstood when Jack and North jumped into that kind of conversation.

So no wonder Jack was surprised that Hiccup bough him two beautiful, tiny, adorable lilacs. However, when his brain finally caught up with the rest of his body, it reminded Jack that he should actually say something and not stood there like a scarecrow.

But… wow… wow…

“Okay, I know now it was stupid! Jack, come on, say something… Anything…”

Jack could only utter three words, as he still was overwhelmed by this situation.

“I love it.” He whispered.

“What?”

And when Hiccup finally turned to him, Jack didn’t wait even a second to jump at Hiccup and embrace him.

“I love it.” He shouted, maybe too close to Hiccup’s ear for his comfort, but now Jack simply was too happy to care for such trivial things. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Jack yelled, picking the teen from the floor (which resulted in a yelp, shout and hit at the top of his head when Hiccup finally freed his one hand) and spinning around wildly.

“Jack, stop!” Hiccup shrieked above him, hiccupping at the end. And now he grabbed a hold of his white hair and tugged them, maybe hoping this would stop the sudden twister.

No, it didn’t. It just made Jack ridiculously happier even.

So Jack made another few swirls and twirls, whooping loudly, which definitely got the attention of North and Emma, but gladly they didn’t walk inside… yet.

“Jack, seriously!” Hiccup, who was still few centimeters above the ground, sounded disturbed. “I will throw up on you…”

Uh oh, this didn’t sound so grand, so Jack stopped twirling, however he didn’t stop moving, as his mind became dizzy. Now he kind of could understand Hiccup’s worries. With only a little problem, he put his guest down, who sighed contently, touching his chest in the same time.

“Uhm sorry?” Jack said, not really sounding that remorseful. Because, seriously, come on. He was just happy.

“No worries, just…” Hiccup put the hand to his mouth. However and gladly nothing came out from it. “Just… don’t do it anymore…”

“No promises.” Jack looked up at the ceiling, more feeling than actually seeing Hiccup glaring at him, which he commented with a short whistle.

The auburn haired teen inhaled deeply, putting his glasses correctly on his nose. He then crossed hands on his chest.

“So I can assume my present is not that… bad?”

“Bad? Hic, it’s amazing!” Jack said, now trying hard not to yell due to excitement still buzzing in his ears.

“Oh… I’m…” Hiccup jumped and quickly looked away, grabbing one lock from his forehead and curling it on his finger. “I’m glad then… really…” He glanced at Jack. “Tuff’s and Ruff’s mom actually helped me with picking up the present. Because you know… I know nothing about flowers and plants, soo…”

Oh. Somehow this didn’t surprise Jack at all. It was so… _hiccup_ (could he even say it as an adjective?) to give him a present with hidden message, encrypted somewhere between lines. But knowing that he seeked help from someone was totally different matter.

It really made Jack’s heart clench in weird, but nice way.

“But in the end I couldn’t decide on the right meaning, so that’s why there are two of them…”

Jack lifted his eyebrow, turning around to stare at the two lilacs. There were only few tiny leaves on the branches, but he was sure that during the spring they will be filled with dozens of beautiful flower buds.

He hummed in response, turning back.

“So what did you pick in the end?”

“Uhm… white and blue.” Hiccup responded, still with red cheeks, but now Jack wasn’t sure if it was because of the exhaustion or embarrassment. Maybe it was a sum of both.

“White and blue…” Jack parroted. He leaned and took one lonely leave between his fingers, brushing it softly, but trying not to rip it off. Let’s go with the easiest option. “Blue because it’s my favourite color and white because of my hair?”

“Well… yes and no.” Hiccup sat down on Jack’s bed.

So the obvious reason wasn’t the right one. No worries, Jack was proud of his knowledge in this field, so he can definitely come up with something. He just had to search for the right meaning, hidden somewhere inside his brain or stocked under other memories.

“White… white…” Jack mumbled to himself, almost humming this word in tune to some song. “White means definitely purity and innocence, but I fail to see myself as something pure.” Innocent wasn’t fitting him either. Maybe even more than purity.

“No offence Jack, but you often act like a child. And kids are usually pure.” Hiccup said. Jack glimpsed back with a smirk. “Plus, I think your heart is very pure. Like… you know… You help people and not ask for anything in return, so I don’t know… It just fits in my opinion.”

Jack felt sweet warmness spreading inside his stomach as he nodded, more to himself. He would still consider that he guessed the meaning right.

But blue… What could blue mean? Trust, honesty… loyalty? Those were right answers, but Jack wasn’t sure if blue lilacs had the same meaning as blue color. Probably, but he wasn’t sure. Then maybe tranquility? Peace?

Jack opened his mouth, but closed it, furrowing his eyebrows.

Blue petunias mean deep trust and peacefulness (Jack had given Tiana a pot of those for her birthday). Blue irises symbolize hope and faith. But lilacs…

However Jack had a feeling he knew the answer. It was peeking slowly from the deepest part of his consciousness, chuckling at him for not being able to grasp it. But he definitely knew the answer…

What was it? What did it mean? It was at the tip of his tongue…

“Happiness.”

Jack turned to Hiccup who was massaging his arm and staring at him a little bit hesitantly.

“Pardon?” Jack asked, not grasping what the teen meant.

“Blue lilacs mean happiness.” Hiccup mumbled, now quieter, but Jack surprisingly heard and understood him even better now.

And Jack in response just gaped at his guest, with his slightly parted lips and no words coming out, simply because he didn’t know what to say.

The warm feeling inside of him was just increased by ten degrees.

And before Jack even came up with something to articulate, Hiccup groaned, hid his face in his hands and laid down on Jack’s bed.

“Ugh, I know, it was dumb, sorry if you doesn’t like them or their meanings. I’m not sure what I was thinking while buying them. Only that… well you’re always happy, but sometimes you are forcibly happy? Does it make sense to you? So I thought that maybe…”

Jack didn’t really listen to him.

He quickly maneuvered to his wardrobe, which he opened and from under a pile of shirts with bands’ names he took out a small wrapped box. It looked so tiny and insignificant in comparison to two trees hugging each other under the heater, but he simply had to give Hiccup something in return.

With a quick inhale, Jack turned around and flopped down on the bed, where the auburn haired teen was still rambling with covered face. Jack dropped the box onto the teen’s head.

“Ophh…” Hiccup mumbled when the box rolled onto his chest. “What was that for, Jack?”

“Your present, doofus.” Jack said, smiling at the upside-down Hiccup’s lost face.

The boy blinked at him confused, but then pouted.

“You didn’t have to buy me anything.” Hiccup said, raising slowly from the bed and grabbing the package. He turned to Jack, but still stared at the wrapped gift in his palms, rolling it around, maybe trying to guess what was inside.

“Says someone who bought me a present.” Jack blew a raspberry at him. Hiccup glanced at him, smirking softly. His hands started to open the present, trying really hard not to tear the green paper around it. “And… you know… sorry that my present… isn’t as amazing as yours…”

Hiccup stopped ungluing the adhesive tape as he raised his eyes at Jack.

“Seriously Jack?” He asked in that really bewildered voice, which made Jack cringe and think he really did and/or said something stupid. Which wasn’t true, of course. “I’m just happy you decided to give me anything. I would be probably happy if you gave me a rubber band.”

“No one can be happy about a bag of rubber bands.”

“Ever tried to put on a distilling cow receiver* without rubber bands keeping it in place?” Hiccup asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Distillation what now?”

“Never mind…” Hiccup shook his head and returned to unwrapping the present.

After four minutes he finally freed the brown box from the mighty captivity of emerald wrapping paper. He slowly opened the box and then took out simple pair of lab glasses.

Jack may-may not have closed his eyes for this moment, because he wasn’t sure if he wanted to see Hiccup’s reaction and the look of disappointment running through those big eyes. He heard Hiccup turning the lab safety glasses in his hands and then gasping softly. Uh oh, he probably saw the tiny, yellow star which Jack had glued to its side.

Back then it sounded like a good idea. Now… not so much.

“Jack?”

“Yes?”

“How do I look?”

Jack, still a little bit hesitant, opened his eyes to stare at Hiccup wearing both glasses and looking at him while smiling from ear to ear. The glittery, tiny sticker shimmered in the corner, accompanied by a delicate glint of Hiccup’s own eyes. And if Jack wasn’t wrong, he felt those orbs shining maybe even brighter than usual.

Hiccup scratched his cheek.

“So?” He prolonged to syllable, awaiting the reply.

“Nerdy.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but punched softly Jack’s arm. Jack chuckled at that. Well, technically, he said the truth. The part about shining eyes he simply decided to leave for himself.

“What? I spoke the truth and you’re punching me for it?” Jack gasped loudly, grabbing his arm and pouting at Hiccup.

“I barely touched you.” Hiccup snapped back, taking off his glasses and staring at them with fond grin still melted to his face.

Jack was really glad. It looked that somehow Aster was on point with the present. How Hiccup was so happy about the simple pair of glasses was however beyond Jack’s mind’s comprehension.

“It still hurt.” Jack added quickly.

“Yeah, totally.” Hiccup mumbled and then put the glasses back in the box. “Thanks. They will really come in handy. Like really.” He said, grabbing his backpack and hiding his present. “I barely saw anything through my old ones.”

“Then why didn’t you buy new ones already?”

Hiccup shrugged and it was the only answer Jack got in that matter. But he had no problems with it. At least he got Hiccup something useful, even though it wasn’t as meaningful as what the teen got him.

Jack laid down on the bed, sighing softly and putting hands behind his head. Now free of all stress, he closed his eyes. It wasn’t so bad. Hiccup enjoyed his present and it was all that mattered.

The bed shifted and Jack felt Hiccup’s accidentally brushing his leg on Jack’s own.

“If you wanted to sleep, you could always tell me to come later.” He commented. When Jack lifted one eyelid, the auburn haired teen was crossing his legs.

“Nah, just wanted to chill out here. The past few days were quite vivid, so my energy resources didn’t fill to the maximum level yet.” Jack murmured with a content smile on his lip.

Hiccup blinked and then burst in laughter. What? What was so funny? Was it something Jack had said?

“I think I may be rubbing on you too strongly.” Hiccup gasped between fits, lifting his normal glasses and brushing his eye.

Rubbing, hmm? This may be a good chance to say a dirty jo-

“And no, I didn’t mean it in the literal way.” Hiccup quickly continued, suddenly turning stern and putting his palms on crossed ankles.

Jack laughed. Was Hiccup some mind-reader or was Jack so easy to read? On the second though, he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to know the answer or not.

However the smaller teen was kind of right. He did start to use weird, a little bit too nerdy (for Jack’s comfort) words lately. Maybe it was because he was speaking a lot with Hiccup?

“Come on Hic! Stop doing that. You’re taking the fun from me.”

“Is seeing me getting super flustered fun to you?”

When the auburn haired teen said it like that, it didn’t sound too good, however…

“…yes?” Jack said, unsurely, lifting his one eyebrow. Come on, it was funny! And kind of… adorable?

Hiccup eyed him, pinching his lips into a thin line, before sighing loudly.

“I will act like I didn’t hear it.”

Jack shrugged or at least tried to, but it was hard to do so while laying. So he only moved his arms on the quilt, making an oceans of wrinkles due to that movement.

“Suit yourself.” He added with an evil smirk.

“I will, thank you for your approval.” Hiccup responded, not even batting an eye and crossing his arms on his chest. He even had that victorious grin on his lips. “I win this one round.”

At that Jack had to groan, untangling his hands from beneath the head and jabbing one finger into his guest’s side. Hiccup swatted his hand away, although a little bit too late.

“You little…” Jack was just about to jump and tackle Hiccup in a fight of jabs, when he remembered why exactly he had invited Hiccup here. Oh, this would be even better. “I see you’re getting courageous. Well let’s test this bravado in real… well, not so real life.”

Hiccup smirk immediately turned sour and he even backed away.

“Do I have to?” He asked, sounding utterly sad.

“Yes, you promised me.” Jack quickly noted, making puppy eyes. He knew that the promise card should be enough, but you could never be one hundred percent sure.

“But…”

“Not butts except yours on my chair playing horror games!” Jack quickly jumped to his feet, already moving to the monitor. He moved the mouse, so the screen could rise from the slumber.

Hiccup groaned, but Jack heard him standing up and shuffling to the chair very, very, _very_ (terribly!) slowly.

Jack was patient. Especially when he turned on _Outlast_ (because come on, it wasn’t a very long game) and the menu screen popped after few seconds in front of them.

Hiccup finally sat down.

“Remember, I will call you at nights when I’ll be scared.” He quickly murmured, pushing Jack’s hand away and taking control of the mouse and the keyboard.

“Oh, I know…” Jack whispered excitedly into Hiccup’s ear. “I was afraid of walking to bathroom after finishing this one.” The boy shuddered and Jack took pride into doing it.

“Stop it.”

He giggled and ran to the door to switch off the lights (because it was already dark outside). He quickly returned to the chair he had brought from the living room and sat down.

“Okay, what we are waiting for!?”

* * *

When Hiccup had said he was bad at playing games Jack didn’t know he would be so bad. Well, maybe it wasn’t the case of abilities in this term (like accuracy or speed of moving fingers), but fear in form of tremors which shook Hiccup’s body, making him unable to press correct keys. So in the end, the game which should take them from two to three hours, took them five and a half to finish.

For Jack it was a wild ride. He had finished two bowls of popcorn, one bag of gummy bears and one bottle of cola, in the meantime enjoying Hiccup’s shrieks and his words of denial – most of the time he simply shouted _‘fuck it, I’m not playing this shit!’_. At some point even Emma had watched Hiccup struggle.

“I hate you, I hate you so much.”

“Oh, I know you love me.”

“No, totally hate. There is only despise and hatred swimming in those thin veins of mine right now.”

Jack had enjoyed himself to the fullest this evening. He couldn’t remember the last time he had so much fun while observing someone play.

Jack bumped Hiccup’s thickly covered arm which resulted in pushing the poor boy almost into a snowdrift.

“Aww, I know it’s not true.” He quickly added.

The smaller teen glared at him, huffing and pushing higher the scarf around his neck.

“This was terrible. My heart is still pounding inside my chest like crazy. I am surprised I’m still conscious and alive.” Hiccup mumbled, barely coherently behind the material covering his mouth. Jack had to lean to hear him.

The snow stopped falling today, but the large layer of white fluff was covering every inch of the streets, branches and houses. It was crunching softly beneath their feet as they were walking slowly to Hiccup’s house. The sky was covered with heavy clouds, veiling the shimmering stars above them.

“But it was good, you have to admit it!”

“Yeah, it was…” Hiccup shivered and Jack wasn’t sure if it was because of the temperature or the bad memories. Maybe both in the end. “It was terrible. I’m so glad Fishlegs is coming over, so I won’t have to sleep alone in my room…”

Jack coed sweetly, trying to pinch Hiccup’s already red cheek.

“Poor baby Hic.”

“Stop it!” The boy swatted his hand away, grumbling incoherent words under his breath, some of them definitely resembling swears.

They stopped in the usual place, near Hiccup’s front door, but on the pavement. Jack looked at Hiccup’s house, missing all Christmas decorations. He knew Hiccup had been at Snotlout’s place for Christmas dinner and that his father was quite busy, but there wasn’t even a single chain nor lamp hanging under gutters. So different than Jack’s own house.

And as always there was a faint light coming from between curtains covering the view of the living room, but now it was more colorful than usual. There was probably Christmas tree standing in the corner.

Jack really liked to escort Hiccup to his house. Of course, the neighborhood was peaceful and rarely something happened here, but Hiccup was also quite unlucky, so there was no way of predicting what could really happen. Aliens could abduct him with his luck and Jack wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe even a little bit jealous.

Plus the calm atmosphere of the outside world and the feeling of completion was quite soothing for Jack, to this point he thought he may get addicted to it.

Hiccup pushed his scarf down and hat higher to glance up at Jack.

“Thanks for taking me home, again.” He added with a sigh. “You know I totally can walk back alone right?”

“Yeah I know… you said it the first time, the second, the third…” Jack started to count, showing his fingers to the boy. Actually he may have not enough fingers on his hands if he was counting all these times he had walked Hiccup back after their learning sessions.

“Point taken, doofus.” Hiccup quickly lifted his hand, stopping Jack. “Besides, I’m not sure you can count that high, so stop it.”

Jack rolled his eyes.

“You’re so funny.”

“I know I’m the best.”

Jack snorted at the obvious smirk on the auburn haired teen’s face. Two could play this game.

“But you know what happens at the end of our meetings lately, don’t you?” Jack quickly asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Hiccup opened his mouth and then pointed with his thumb at the door, immediately making two steps back.

“You know what? I left something on the oven, so you know? I’m afraid I’ll burn it so…”

That was the poorest lie Jack had ever heard, so he didn’t wait a second to jump at Hiccup and embrace him for goodbye.

It wasn’t that uncommon in Jack’s group of friends to hug each other when they were saying goodbye. Most of the times he did it with girls and few guys, so he decided to bring this tradition to Hiccup to warm him a little to Jack’s touch. Besides, they were technically dating, right?

But today… today was a little bit different.

He felt the warmness of Hiccup’s body under his arms, he heard the soft breath huffed on his neck, he sensed the tickling feeling of Hiccup’s hair on his nose.

And Jack felt his own heart beating inside his ribcage. Faster than usual.

Hiccup stopped moving, almost like he was turned into a stone (or maybe frozen) statue under magical spell.

“This is the worst…” A low rumble tickled the skin on Jack’s neck when Hiccup exhaled loudly through his nose.

Jack chuckled. Seriously, he could hug Hiccup just to hear his responds to it.

“Shush it, you’re doing great.” Jack murmured, feeling the smirk blossoming on his face.

Hiccup twitched in his arms.

But this wasn’t a twitch of discomfort or a plead to be let out, because not even five seconds later Jack felt two palms resting on his back. Hiccup barely put any pressure on hugging back, it felt more like a ghost touch than actual human being reciprocating the hug, but it was there!

Hiccup hugged Jack back!

And the sudden leap of his heart couldn’t be misinterpreted. He couldn’t deny that this rapid skip of a beat actually happened, because the sudden movement made his throat clench.

It was almost painful.

However he grinned wider and tightened the embrace, squishing Hiccup’s jacket into his chest.

“Jack, I… can’t breathe! Humans need… oxygen to live! Mine Alveolar sacs* are closing!”

Well, with this he simply couldn’t fight.

With reluctance Jack let Hiccup go. The teen took a step back and brushed his jacket, like by hugging Jack he got invisible dust on it. Or maybe he just wanted to straighten creases on it.

“Well that was…” Hiccup coughed and corrected his scarf.

“Nice?” Jack nudged.

“Too warm, but whatever.” Hiccup lifted his one eyebrow, starring at him a little bit skeptically, but with a hint of amusement hidden inside those green eyes.

“But you hugged me back!” Jack wasn’t losing this one, as he tilted his head and hid hands inside his pockets.

“Consider it an additional present for Christmas.” Then after a thought, he added. “And don’t get used to it.”

“I promise nothing.” Jack said, proudly puffing his chest.

Hiccup rolled his eyes.

“Why do I still spend time with you?”

“Because you love me?” Jack leaned closer and fluttered his eyes, making the most handsome face he had in his arsenal.

Hiccup snorted and pushed Jack’s face away with his gloved hand.

“Debatable.” He quickly retorted.

Jack pouted, but straightened his body

”So I guess I see you on New Years’ Eve?” Jack asked instead, feeling his fingers twitch and sensing an urge to scratch the back of his neck.

The auburn haired boy nodded at him. The glasses slipped from his nose and he corrected them with a slight shove.

“Sure, I’ll call you then.”

“Sweet!” Jack said and ruffled Hiccup’s hair, well hat, but in his mind he wanted to ruffle the boy’s hair. “See ya later!” And just like always, he turned on his heels and started to walk away.

He moreover heard Hiccup responding, but the voice was dulled to the sound of his loudly beating heart inside his ears.

Shit. Things were not looking good for him.

* * *

Hiccup walked from one end of the platform to the other. He did it exactly twenty seven times already, which only resulted in a pain in the leg and a very concerned stare from a charwoman. He probably looked like a lunatic – a small teenager at 6 am was pacing nervously around the platform, murmuring under his breath. And no, he wasn’t waiting for a train to Hogwarts… unfortunately.

He checked the time. The train was getting late. Approximately three minutes late.

Except him and the cleaning lady on the snowy platform was an old man who was yawning every five seconds and reading a newspaper and two women chirping happily, but loudly at this ungodly hour.

Hiccup huffed and the air formed a small cloud in front of his mouth, which also fogged his glasses. He had no power to take them off and clean, so he waited for the fog to disappear.

He was excited. He didn’t see Fishlegs in few months (the last time they had seen each other was during summer holidays) and well, the fact that he missed his friend was pretty visible. Fishlegs was the only one in their pack who understood him and shared his interests. So Hiccup simply couldn’t wait to finally see the teen and hear in person what had happened in his life.

The loud tooting sound of the train entering the station made him turn instantly on his heel and focus on two lights passing him by.

His eyes scanned windows, searching for a familiar face who also could be looking out for him, but the only thing he saw were unfamiliar and tired eyes of very groggy and sleepy people. He followed the train for few meters and when it stopped, Hiccup did too. Blue doors opened with a shushing sound and the swarm of people started to pour out from them. He had to make few steps back to not dive into the crowd and be taken away with it. He stood on his tiptoes and searched for the known face or hair or just whatever that could tell him that Fishlegs indeed was here and didn’t miss Hiccup (what was pretty possible due to all those people outside). But no such luck, for now.

Hiccup felt something swelling inside his lungs, but he told himself to calm down. He definitely was there. Fishlegs even had written him a message, informing that he was already on the train.

“Hiccup!”

He turned his head and smiled when he saw a chubby face of his blond haired friend, dragging a giant suitcase behind him.

Hiccup ran to him, bumping into few people on the way.

“It’s so good to see you, bud!”

“Same here. Sorry, there was an old lady which needed help in getting down her bag.” Fishlegs stopped in front of him with a very warm smile on his lips.

“No worries. I’m just happy to see you.” Hiccup couldn’t stop the grin from forming on his mouth. “Give me this.” He said, grabbing a bag from Fishlegs’ other hand. He wasn’t maybe strong, but he still could help carry something. “How was the trip?”

They both started walking to the moving stairs.

“Sleepy.” Fishlegs stated the obvious. He took the night train, so he could sleep during the trip. Hiccup could understand his way of thinking, but he rarely was able to sleep in unfamiliar places. Or away from Toothless. “But you look like a zombie.” Fishlegs pointed out, lifting one eyebrow, and then put the suitcase on the step behind himself. “Did you stay till 3 am re-watching _Bill Nye the Science Guy_?”

Hiccup stepped on the vibrating step behind Fishlegs’ suitcase.

“No, you know I wouldn’t do a marathon without you.” Hiccup said, feeling an urge to brush his eyes.

Fishlegs chuckled.

“Glad that we still agree on that. Then why do you look like you’re about to fall asleep?”

That was… that was pretty embarrassing. Lately, he simply had problems with falling asleep. And it all was because of one mister called Jackson Overland.

If the said person would be standing here right now then Hiccup wouldn’t hesitate to punch him in the gut as hard as he could. But unfortunately Jack wasn’t here, so Hiccup couldn’t pour his frustration into this primitive, yet very effective movement. So he was stuck with what he got – problems with falling asleep.

“It’s just…” Fishlegs would understand. “Jack forced me to play _Outlast_ with him and… you know…”

The teen got off the escalator, making place for Hiccup to do it too. They both walked to the bright, blinking exit sign hanging above a glass door.

“Typical response to playing some good horror game.” Fishlegs nodded. See, Hiccup had nothing to worry about. His friend understood him completely. “Well the typical response for such scaredy cats like you, Hic, no offense.”

Hiccup groaned.

“None taken.”

But gladly Jack kept his part of the promise, because when Hiccup had messaged him at 3 am the first night after playing he had responded almost immediately. Which was nice. Amazing actually. Jack even had proposed to call him, but Hiccup didn’t want to wake neither his dad nor Jack’s family with them talking at such late hour.

“But at least he forced you to play a good game.” Fishlegs continued the topic.

They both walked out of the railway station and shivered at the freezing wind running and sneaking around Burgess.

“Yeah, it was okay…” Hiccup mumbled, looking around the snowy surroundings. He spotted the bus stop near the road. “Do you want to take a bus?”

The taller teen shrugged.

“I’m okay actually and up for a little walk actually. That is if you don’t mind?” Fishlegs smiled a little sheepishly, like he was embarrassed about proposing this idea. “I didn’t see Burgess in four months, so I’m kind of curious whether something changed here or not.”

Hiccup nodded. He could totally understand Fishlegs. Maybe this wasn’t his favourite town in the whole world, but they both had grown up here.

Even when it was pretty early, the streets in the city center were crowded with people bustling around. Maybe it was the New Years’ fever getting into them?

“So I see that everything is going well between you and Jack.” Fishlegs suddenly said, but he wasn’t looking at Hiccup. His eyes were focused on the parallel street where he stared at signs hanging above shops.

“Yeah, I mean, when you get to know him he is a decent and kind guy.” Hiccup said, correcting the hold on the bag on his arm. He was glad he had gloves, because this morning was exceptional chilly.

“Good, that’s good.” Fishlegs nodded to himself. “I’m glad everything between you is okay. To be honest, I wasn’t so sure when you told me about your… plan.” There was a small hesitation while speaking the last word and Hiccup wasn’t sure if it was because they were in the crowded place or because Fishlegs had no better way to call their fake-dating rendezvous. “But now I see I was worrying for nothing. Gladly.”

“Oh, well…” Hiccup scratched the back of his head, accidentally moving his hat and disheveling his hair even more. “I wasn’t sure about it either at the beginning, but you know… after a while it started to not be so bad.”

Fishlegs hummed under his nose and glanced at him with this look in his eyes that didn’t bring anything good with it. Seriously, even Fishlegs?!

“Fishlegs!” Hiccup groaned, which resulted in his friend chuckling under his nose.

“No worries, I only did it to hear your reaction. I’m sure you have plenty of this jabbing from Astrid and twins…”

This was… was, well, not so comfortable.

“Uhm, yeah, about that…” Hiccup started, only to swallow a huge amount of cold air before speaking once again. “Ruff, Tuff and Snotlout don’t know that this all is… fake…” He mumbled, closing his eyes at the end.

Fishlegs didn’t respond for some time. In the meantime they stopped at the lights together with few people and waited patiently for all cars to stop at their red light. Only then they slowly shuffled forward.

Hiccup felt bad that he didn’t tell his other friends about his plan, but he knew them too well and he also knew that when they were drunk they could spill some secrets. Of course, it was never intentional. Stuff like that happens, but well… with them it happens way too often for comfort.

It wasn’t like he didn’t trust Ruffnut, Tuffnut or Snotlout, because he knew if he asked for help then they would help him without blinking an eye (even Snotlout once proved it), but secrets… were totally different matter.

But even after a month and a half it was still terrible and Hiccup simply felt guilty. He wanted to tell them the truth.

“Well I can tell that you had your reasons.” Fishlegs finally said after they crossed the street and slowly moved away from the tall buildings cramped together in the city center. The wind outside was even stronger and colder than inside the city.

The sentence made Hiccup sigh with relief, even though it didn’t soothe the bad feeling hiding inside his heart.

“Thank you.” He muttered, pushing the fringe from his forehead. “I really wanted… want to tell them, but… I’m afraid they will spill it out.”

Hiccup knew it was kind of bad for thinking this way, but… ugh, no, there was no way for explaining what he had done. He simply did bad thing, but he had to keep it up for a little more time.

How long more actually? His situation with Dagur was quite stable. The teen kind of stopped pestering him in and out of the school, but Hiccup had a feeling there were other reasons behind it. The last time Hiccup had seen Dagur in school he looked terribly… depressed, especially with his head hanging low. Come to this, Heather didn’t look that much better. With her friends she had been all smiles and butterflies, but her façade quickly had dropped down when she had been turning away.

But what could make them act like that?

“Yeah, that’s why I said I understand.” Fishlegs smiled to him and then corrected the gray scarf around his neck. “Okay, I must say I didn’t miss winters in Burgess definitely. Were they always this cold?”

Hiccup chuckled as he moved forward into the more heavy falling snow.

“It was worse. Remember the winter at our second grade?”

Fishlegs shivered and Hiccup wasn’t sure if it was because of the cold or the memories.

“Yeah, then it was really cold.”

* * *

_Hey guys, are you hungry? Maybe some trip to Ruff and Tuff? =D_

Hiccup lifted his face from the phone and glanced at Fishlegs, who was looking at the laptop’s screen.

“Astrid is asking if we’re up for some food.” Hiccup lifted his body a little from his almost laying position on the bed. “Are we up?”

The taller boy next to him tore away his gaze from some scientific YouTube video, pausing it in the same time. He shrugged, but Hiccup could see some sparks of interest appearing in his eyes.

“I am always up for food Hiccup. The question is whether you want to go out or not.” Fishlegs pointed knowingly with his head at the window, where big layer of snow was laying on the window sill, totally looking like a precipitate in a test-tube. “Plus I want to see Astrid and the rest.”

Hiccup nodded and wrote a quick response, that they would be near her house in twenty minutes or so.

Besides Stoick was late. It was already late afternoon. Even the sky turned fully black. Usually he was home at this hour. Maybe he had more work to do? Totally possible. But he usually had texted Hiccup that he would be late, but he received no message from his father.

With a groan he stood up which Fishlegs commented with a short snort. They gathered quickly their things. Hiccup closed his laptop, put it away on the desk and scratched Toothless behind his ear while exiting his room. They put on the thickest jackets they had and went out with Hiccup locking the door first.

They walked quickly to Astrid’s house, almost not muttering any word to each other due to the really chilly wind outside. They were there even faster than in twenty minutes, but when Fishlegs rung a doorbell, Astrid opened the door almost immediately, jumping at him and grabbing into a deadly hug.

Hiccup was glad he was one step away, because his friend’s face quickly turned purple under Astrid’s strong embrace.

“Oh man, it’s so good to see you!” She said almost lifting Fishlegs from the ground.

The poor boy tried to say something, but the scarf and strong hold was preventing him from doing so, so Hiccup stepped close and put his hands on Astrid’s shoulders.

“Okay, Astrid, he can’t breathe, put him down.”

“Boo, joy-killer!” Astrid blew him a raspberry, but gladly put Fishlegs down and freed him from her embrace. Seriously, what was with people and hugs? Was it some kind of weird hormone which was making people want to hug each other?

Fishlegs took a deep breath, putting his hand on his chest, but the fuzzy smile quickly blossomed on his face.

“Glad to see you too.” He gasped, a little bit hoarsely.

“Aww you didn’t change at all.” Astrid said, punching his arm and then jumping off the stairs in front of her house.

“It was only four months.”

“Whatever, let’s go eat. I’m starving!” And without glancing back, Astrid started to walk away.

Hiccup glanced at Fishlegs and shrugged. They both jogged to her, trying not to slip on the icy pavement.

Most of the walk to the restaurant Astrid was talking with Fishlegs, catching up on all the things they had missed. Hiccup remained silent, only once or twice interrupting the conversation to add few words here and there.

In few minutes they were in front of the restaurant in which Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout were working. Astrid pushed the front door and then made place to let everyone in. Fishlegs walked first followed by Hiccup.

After entering Hiccup’s glasses immediately fogged up. He sighed loudly as he pushed them down, so he was able to see something with his own eyes. Fishlegs and Astrid walked to a table for six in the further part of the restaurant, near an entrance to a kitchen. Hiccup quickly jogged after them.

There were a lot of people sitting inside, chatting with each other and munching on their food. No wonder that most of the people wanted to stay inside than walk around in the winter weather. But due to everyone’s jackets and coats hanging on chairs it was hard to maneuver inside.

Finally Hiccup stopped in front of the table and took off his own jacket, also throwing it on the chair and sitting with a loud huff.

“Seriously, you would think people would stay in their homes during winter, but apparently not.” He mumbled, brushing the wet fringe away from his forehead.

“Not everyone is as antisocial as you, Hiccup, so don’t whine.” Astrid sat next to him. “Besides food here is good.”

“You can’t argue with arguments like that.” Fishlegs added sitting on his other side and immediately grabbing the menu standing proudly in the middle of the wooden table. “Something changed here?”

Astrid looked around, searching for the familiar faces and silhouettes scrambling around, getting orders and bringing food to the hungry customers, but then she turned back with unsatisfied look.

“Nope, the same as ever.” She said.

A teenager with the restaurant’s logo on her apron walked to them and flipped the notepad to another page. They quickly ordered the usual for them, but when the girl wanted to walk away Astrid spoke.

“Are Ruff, Tuff or Snotlout here?”

The waiter lifted her eyebrow.

“I think they should be off their break in few minutes.” She answered, glancing at her wristwatch first.

Astrid thanked her and the girl walked away to another table. There really had a lot of customers at this hour.

For some time Astrid and Fishlegs talked about some multiplayer games that were coming out this year which they both could play together. Hiccup one more time mostly listened.

To be honest, he actually liked it – being able to be silent and only listen to their conversation. He never felt left out with both of them. It was different than when he was with Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout – they sometimes almost forced him to speak. Now he simply could listen, speaking whenever he wanted.

“Look what the weather brought us. Big man is back in the town.” The quite loud and very hyperactive voice was the only thing alarming them before suddenly two people jumped at poor Fishlegs. He could only yelp before he was once again squished almost to death, but now by very lively and always energetic Thorston twins.

Snotlout was calmer gladly as he approached their table, tying the apron behind his back with a simple _‘sup’_ as a greeting.

“Man, why didn’t you say you were already here!?” Ruffnut asked, moving away and ruffling Fishlegs’ hair affectionately. Then she pointed a very accusing finger in Hiccup’s direction, which almost hit him in the nose. “You! I blame you for not informing us.”

“I did inform you, you just forgot.” And it was the truth. He had written them two days ago that he would be picking Fishlegs up on this precise day from the train station. “Check our Skype’s history.”

“But you could tell us today!” Tuffnut moved to the front and also nudged Fishlegs’ head. “Anyway, good to see you man. Ready to be destroyed in _Jungle Speed_ on New Year’s Eve?”

At that Astrid next to him literally shivered and curled on herself.

“I though no one would be bringing it.” She murmured, glancing warily between her friends and almost pleading with her eyes for someone to confirm this information.

Hiccup didn’t want to be the one to ruin her hopes, as he also wasn’t the biggest fan of this game. But the twins said that if they have to endure _‘nerds’ night out/inside’_ at least they have to play _Jungle Speed_.

“I’m sorry Astrid, but I thought it would only be fair to let them play.” Fishlegs mumbled, looking at her with pure sadness and guilt crystalizing in his eyes.

“Yeah, baby, we’re on!” Tuffnut suddenly shouted and high-fived his sister above Hiccup’s head, who had to duck to not be hit accidentally.

Oh joy, he almost missed the twins for the past few days after Christmas.

Gladly the same waiter who had written their orders down interrupted them with quite theatrical cough just behind their back. When everyone turned to her, she was glaring at the twins and Snotlout.

“Here are your orders.” She stepped forward and put three plates in front of Astrid, Fishlegs and Hiccup. “And you… I think there are some orders to take.”

Both Snotlout and Tuffnut saluted, straightening their back. Ruffnut only snorted in response, but they all finished tying their aprons.

“We are finishing in two hours. Wait for us!” The blonde haired girl shouted, before together with her brother and Snotlout disappeared behind the kitchen door.

Hiccup turned around and glanced at Fishlegs, who only shrugged at him.

“Good that we didn’t plan anything for today then.”

* * *

“What are we doing here exactly?” Hiccup asked as he had to cover his eyes from the blasting colors that were trying to blind him from every direction.

“Come on, Hic. We finished our shifts and we want to relax a little bit.” Tuffnut nudged him, as he passed Hiccup and walked to the machine in which he threw few coins.

“Can’t we relax at home while watching movies?” Hiccup asked, massaging his arm and stepping out of the way of two kids who ran to the DDR station next to them.

“Nope. So deal with it.” Ruffnut pushed past him and stopped behind the two kids who tried to trample Hiccup. She encouraged Astrid who was currently ruling over the DDR console.

Hiccup sighed and looked around. Fishlegs, after entering the Burgess Arcadia, had immediately moved to some old games standing alone in the corner to check if his score was still at the top of the board. Judging by his lack of presence it meant that someone had beated him and he had to take back what was rightfully his. Snotlout and Tuffnut had jumped to some shooting game, racing each other who could kill more zombies (or whatever was there). Astrid was the queen of the DDR (when she put her feet on this machine she could dance all night). Ruffnut had been maneuvering around the place, but mostly had been standing near some fighting game, breaking every boy’s and teen’s spirit while destroying their characters. And Hiccup…

Hiccup didn’t have his favourite game. Moreover he was overtaken by the amount of bright colors and sounds and people and just everything happening around him. He was with Fishlegs for some time, but the taller teen didn’t like when someone talked to him or did something when he was breaking the records, so Hiccup quickly left him to fend for himself. With Tuffnut and Snotlout he was afraid he would accidentally be hit by their waving hands. He stayed with Astrid for some time, but the sound level of her game was hurting his ears (plus the music choice wasn’t too good.). With Ruffnut it was the most fun and Hiccup enjoyed seeing other boys getting angry after losing to a girl, but he got dizzy from staring for too long at the bright and moving screen.

He checked the time on his phone. It was close to ten pm and even though they still had holidays and his father was weirdly all about him staying out late, he didn’t exactly tell Stoick that he would be away for so long.

Hiccup tapped Ruffnut’s arm, after she had made an amazing combo, kicking the opponent into the sky and away from the ring. A man twice her size looked dumbfounded at the screen.

“Sup, Hiccup?” She asked, turning to him with ablazed cheeks.

“I’m going out for a second to call my dad, okay?” He moved his phone in front of her eyes to show his point in case she didn’t hear him. It was quite loud here.

“Sure thing. Just return to us and don’t go wandering alone, okay?”

He nodded and then left Ruffnut for a rematch. He was sure the girl would kick the man’s butt one more time and he only hoped this wouldn’t result in some fight in the Arcadia, about which they could be writing in a newspaper tomorrow.

Hiccup maneuvered around teenagers and adults and moved to the exit. He welcomed the cold wind with a sigh, even though it was biting on his nose and ears. At least there was some free space.

Hiccup leaned on the wall next to the entrance and took out his phone, quickly searching for his father’s number.

Stoick answered after four signals. Unusual long for him, but maybe the phone was just laying too far away.

“Hello?”

“Hi Dad. Just wanted to say that I’m out with Astrid and the rest.” Which usually meant the whole pack. “Can you take out the mattress and put it in my room?”

“Oh, good, good. Okay, I can do that.” Stoick answered fast and Hiccup heard him standing up and shuffling around the room. “I assume Fishlegs is already with you then?”

“Yes, he is…” See? There was the problem. Almost nothing about him getting late to home! Urgh and Hiccup hoped that maybe once (only once) his Dad would tell him to return home early, but no such luck.

Stoick on the other side sighed and it looked like he found the mattress in the spare room.

“Everything okay?” Hiccup asked after another groan flowed into his ears. His father was strong, bulky and powerful – he rarely got tired just by caring some mattress around the house. “You sound… exhausted.”

“Me? No, I’m okay.” He grunted and then it looked like he threw the mattress into Hiccup’s room, judging by the sound of Toothless hissing quite loudly. “See, everything’s perfect.”

“Yeah, sure.” Hiccup mumbled. He wanted to hide his mouth into his scarf, but he left it at a cloakroom.

“Was it all you needed from me?”

“Yeah.” He exhaled loudly. Hiccup wouldn’t accomplish anything via phone with his dad. Not to mention it was already quite late and he preferred for Stoick to at least relax and rest for a little bit.

“Do you have keys to the house?”

Hiccup patted the pocket where the keys jingled tenderly under the touch. He knew he had locked the door after exiting with Fishlegs, but he still preferred to check the pockets. Just to be sure.

“Yeah, I do.” He responded and then put the phone to his other hand, because the first one started to ache from the cold weather. “I guess I see you later.”

“Take care and have fun.” Was Stoick last reply before the line became silent.

Hiccup sighed and moved the phone away from his ear. He should stop hoping that his dad would ask him to go home early. Apparently Stoick believed that coming back late was something normal for teenagers (even though Hiccup would like to be home earlier than on midnight).

He checked the time one more time. Yep, fourteen minutes after ten. And an unopened message from _‘The Hottest Dude You Have Ever Se’_. Why he still didn’t change it to simple _‘Jack’_ was beyond Hiccup’s mind comprehension. Maybe because it was making him chuckle whenever he glanced at his phone?

But if someone would accidentally (or not) look at his phone and saw that, then…

Wait, they were fake-dating, so this shouldn’t be weird or anything like that. Besides, Jack himself wrote it – it would be kind of rude to replace it.

Hiccup unglued his back from the wall and moved to the warm entrance with the phone still frozen to his cold hand. He was trying to write some normal response – without too much mistakes – when he heard a loud banging sound.

He quickly turned around to see a ray of light casted upon the pavement from the entrance to some restaurant (or fast-food joint, he wasn’t sure) with a door fully opened (the sound of it hitting the wall was what caught his attention). He kind of expected for some drunk dudes or girls to stumble out of this place…

What he did not expect was for Dagur and his sister Heather to walk out of the restaurant.

Murphy’s law was working astonishingly good in this world.

Hiccup immediately froze mid-step with his body halfway turned to the source of the commotion.

But Dagur didn’t even glance at Hiccup. He threw a scarf around his neck with a scowl on his face and turned in other direction, putting his hands inside his pockets.

“Dagur, wait!” Heather jumped to him and caught his arm, but the teen didn’t stop moving, only shrugged her off mumbling something too quiet for Hiccup to hear him from few meters away. “Can’t you just bear with it for few more minutes? For my sake?”

Dagur stopped and turned to Heather in the middle of the street.

“I endured him for at least half of my life and I’m not going to do it much longer. Now leave me alone!” Then he caught his hoodie and threw it over his head. “Have a good evening.” Dagur added, turned around, freeing himself from his sister’s grasp in the same time, and stomped away, not even once glancing back.

Heather stood there alone with her palms lifted, staring at her brother until he turned around the corner. Only then she slowly wrapped her hands around herself.

Shit. What had Hiccup just seen? It didn’t look a simple siblings’ quarrel. And if Hiccup had to be perfectly honest, he rarely heard Dagur yell at someone. He was terrifying, but… he never yelled. And he was never mean to his sister.

Hiccup finally felt his body breaking free from the frozen state he was forcefully put into by his brain. He glanced at the bright entrance to the Burgess Arcadia, welcoming him with the flashes of light and heaters standing in the entrance. Should he…

Ugh, who he was kidding.

“Everything’s… all right?”

Hiccup knew it was a stupid question. It was as dumb as not taking out the plug from the separatory funnel when he was draining the bottom layer and wondering why it wasn’t dripping into the flask*.

But Hiccup was more over inexperienced in these comforting people matters. Or at least this was what he preferred to tell himself to feel a little bit better about his stupid decisions.

Heather turned her head around with wide and glassy eyes. When she spotted Hiccup, her look softened and she sniffed, which she tried to cover with a small cough.

“Oh, hey Hiccup.” She whispered quietly, looking away for a second. Her pale palm brushed an ebony lock behind her ear.

Hiccup saw her wrist shivering, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the emotional state or the cold weather outside. Maybe both.

Definitely both.

“Maybe it’s not my problem, but…” Okay, he gulped down. “Can I help you somehow? I never saw… Dagur so angry…” _At you_ was unspoken and Hiccup preferred it that way.

Heather chuckled at that. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, still laughing under her breath.

“Yeah, he usually keeps it all for himself when he is angry.” And after a while she added. “That is my big bro for you.”

Hiccup clenched and unclenched his fists inside his pockets few times, wondering what he should do.

Ugh, it all looked so easy in movies and books. His friends always were able to lift up Hiccup’s mood with only few sentences and gentle pat to the shoulder. When Jack did it, it all looked like it was as easy as acid-base titration.

But apparently it was a very complicated machine, with even more tangled electricity circuit and Hiccup didn’t know which buttons to press to get some or any kind of positive reaction.

“Mind me asking what happened there?” Hiccup asked in a whisper, not sure whether he made a good or a bad move.

Heather looked at the ground and kicked some rock, which rolled for a meter or so and stopped. Hiccup wasn’t sure if it was because of the friction or just Heather kicked it really weak.

“A family dinner which I shouldn’t plan at all.” She answered, not casting her eyes up and still looking at the gray, dirty, and trodden snow beneath their feet.

“Why?” Hiccup immediately asked. He wanted to clamp his mouth and keep it shut, but the question just rolled off his tongue. Why was he so interested in Dagur’s and Heather’s argument? The teen practically molested him at some point.

Yet, he looked unusual down lately. There definitely was something wrong with Hiccup’s brain if he was concerned about his enemy well-being. Maybe he got Jack’s germs on himself somehow?

“It’s just… he doesn’t get too well with our dad. I know it and yet… you know…” She sniffed one more time. “I hoped that this time it could be different… guess I was stupid for hoping…”

Okay, okay, this was pretty bad. Red alert, red alert!

Hiccup opened his mouth and closed it. Seriously, he wanted for Jack to be right here with him. He would know what to say to help Heather. He always knew what to say.

But Jack wasn’t here right now. It was only Hiccup and Heather.

“I don’t think it’s stupid to want to spend some time with your family…” He finally said, not even sure if it was the right thing to say or not. But at least this was what he thought was okay.

“Guess with my family it’s different.” Heather quickly retorted, but the corners of her lips twitched in almost depressing smile.

Well, Hiccup didn’t expect that kind of a response. He pushed his glasses higher while he searched desperately in his mind for something to say in this situation, but his brain was blank. No, that was wrong. It wasn’t blank, it was filled with many sentences, ideas to say, but they all were wrong.

“I think that the timing was just bad.”

Heather glanced at him and pinched her lips together in a thin line, but added nothing. Maybe Hiccup should elaborate on that?

“It’s that… lately Dagur looked weirdly… weirdly down, so maybe he isn’t in the best mood for some… family meetings.” Wow, he wasn’t even sure what he was talking about.

However it was pretty obvious that Heather cared deeply for her brother (no matter how big of a douche he was). If she didn’t, she wouldn’t almost cry in front of Hiccup. And he knew well how hard it was to try to stop the prickling tears from running down your cheeks.

She was strong. And in need of some warm words. Only Hiccup wasn’t the perfect person for this kind of things.

Jack was. He would be perfect for this kind of situations. He would be perfect for her… not Hiccup.

He blinked, taken aback by the sudden… something which abruptly ran through his body. A small tremor, a shudder, a shiver which jumped between his joints. Gosh, why was the wind in Burgess so freezing? Even with few layers of clothes he was still trembling.

Because it had to be due to cold.

“There is never a right time.” Heather mumbled, but finally looked up at him. “But I appreciate your concern.” She added, trying to put something similar to a smile on her lips, but they only twitched (it kind of looked like half of her face was frozen). She patter her cheeks with her hands. “Okay. He will eventually return home. He can’t stay too long out in this weather.” Then she chuckled and leaned closer to Hiccup. “To tell you a secret, he is a lazy, warm bun, who loves to be wrapped in tons of blankets and lay in front of a fireplace with cup of hot chocolate. But don’t tell anyone about it or his bad boy image will be ruined.” She put her finger near his mouth and the smile she tried to put on this time was a little bit more honest, even if still crooked.

Hiccup made a zipping motion with his finger, trying to imagine Dagur in front of a fireplace with dozens of blankets around him. This… this didn’t look and sounded like him at all, so he had problems with painting the image inside his head.

“I will tell no one.” He added, after he had thrown the imaginary key away into a pile of dirty snow laying on the side of the road.

“Good. I trust you.” And then she turned around to the still opened door to the restaurant. How no one walked and closed it was a mystery to Hiccup. “I must go back to the rest of my family that didn’t run away.” The teen glanced back at him. “Have a calm evening. Well, better than mine that is.”

“I’ll try, but I don’t know how calm evening could be while spending it with Ruff and Tuff.”

Heather chuckled under her nose and the air coming from her mouth formed a tiny cloud in front of her pale lips.

“Not that calm. Say hello to them from me.” And with that she turned around and walked inside the restaurant. The door closed after her, cutting the source of yellow light on the ground.

Hiccup stood in the middle of the street for few more second, confused and quite messed inside his head. He moved his fingers. His palms still didn’t freeze, even though it felt like he was standing there already for few hours (which wasn’t possible).

“Hiccup, are you alive?”

He glanced back at the bright, translucent door to the Burgess Arcadia, now standing wide open with Astrid looking at him with quite worried look.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I was just about to go back inside.” Hiccup nodded, sniffing and feeling that he kind of needed a handkerchief right now.

“Then move faster. Ruffnut found some dude on the same level as hers and the fight is getting hectic! The whole Arcadia is already watching!”

Hiccup sighed, but followed her inside, welcoming the sudden gust of warm air on his body from the heater standing next to the door with a relief. Yep, it was too cold outside. But at least the water pumps inside their laboratory could achieve lower vacuum*, so it wasn’t that bad.

“I just hope she won’t get in another fight.”

“Well…”

Hiccup didn’t like the tone of Astrid’s voice and how she desperately avoided his gaze, but decided to follow her further nevertheless.

He hoped he wouldn’t regret it later.

* * *

“Dude, the message won’t magically pop on your phone if you look at it more often. Besides you insisted on playing this game with me and now you’re looking away from it.”

Jack groaned and turned from his phone to the computer’s screen.

He really wanted to play this game with Aster, because _duh_ it was very fun to play it in two-player mode, but he couldn’t fully focus on it. The fault could be the late hour… or well… Hiccup.

The boy didn’t answer him for twelve hours. And no, the fact that it was 1 am wasn’t really exempting him from messaging Jack back.

When Jack did look back, Aster unblocked the game and they both started to move to another destination. But Jack was so out of it that he accidentally killed both of them and they had to start the level from the very beginning. Well, they wouldn’t have to start it all over if Jack didn’t insist on picking the hardest mode.

“Okay, Frost, I can’t take it. What’s bugging you?” Aster huffed, pausing the game once again and turning to him.

Jack put his legs on the chair.

“Nothing is wrong with me.” He murmured, but also put the joypad away. “I’m probably tired.”

“Dude, it’s like only one am. You rarely asleep at this hour. Plus you already glanced at your phone twenty-seven times.” Aster noticed, lifting one eyebrow.

“You counted?” Jack asked, smirking at him and putting his chin on his knees.

“Unfortunately yes.”

Jack chuckled at that. Typical Aster. Somehow this didn’t surprise him.

So okay, maybe he was looking at the phone quite too many times for Aster’s comfort. But come on! Hiccup never had stopped responding for such long time without announcing first that he would be doing something important.

“So on whose amazing response you’re waiting for?” Aster crossed hands on his chest, rolling away from his desk a little to have more space for himself. He even cockily put one leg on another. What a douche!

“No ones.” Jack grumbled under his nose.

“Dude, don’t lie to me.”

Yes, Jack knew he was bad at lying. And it wasn’t like he was ashamed of the fact that he waited for Hiccup’s response. If someone else asked about it then he would say it right away. The problem was the person who asked it.

Aster – of all people it had to be Aster. Probably the fact that Jack was spending the night over at Aster’s house was quite important selection’s detail, but still. It could be anyone else.

No, of course, it couldn’t.

And well, to be honest, Jack didn’t want to tell Aster that he was anticipating Hiccup’s message. He could accidentally think something stupid. Something really weird. Something maybe unbelievable. Bunny simply could think that Hiccup and Jack had something for each other, like real feelings.

Jack couldn’t allow that. He couldn’t allow for Aster to think Hiccup had feelings for Jack, because…

Because…

Because Hiccup had a crush on Aster. And they would be perfect together. They were both nerds. They had so many common topics! They definitely would have fun while spending time together.

But Hiccup was stuck in the fake-relationship with Jack and not the perfect for him Aster. Hiccup deserved better and Jack didn’t want to destroy this small seed of hope which could bloom between him and Aster.

Even though something deep inside was telling him that it wasn’t as easy as he initially had thought.

“I’m not lying, I’m avoiding the truth.” Jack simply stated. “Just leave it for now. Seriously, I’m begging you.”

Aster lifted his eyebrow and eyed him for few more seconds, but then sighed heavily and brushed away the wet fringe from his forehead. He had taken a shower some time ago, but his hair still didn’t dry off completely.

“Only because you’re asking me to. And don’t think I’ll forget about it.”

“I owe you big time.”

At that Bunny smiled softly, yet a little tiredly. Lately he was kind of edgy and nervous, bursting in grumbles and casting sarcastic comments everywhere like he had a never ending amount of mana on him. It wasn’t like Aster totally changed, those were only small facts Jack had noticed along the way of the last two weeks.

And he still refused to tell Jack what was wrong, so the white haired teen could also play this card.

“Yeah, of course. Now do you still want to play this game or can we maybe go to sleep?”

“Nah.” Jack waved his hand and when Aster started to smile, he quickly grabbed the gamepad one more time. “Don’t wanna sleep. Let’s at least beat this level. Or this map.”

Aster wasn’t very nice to him till they went to sleep an hour later.

* * *

“Jack, your phone is buzzing. Whoever it is tell him or her to write to you later.”

Jack moved his hand around himself, searching for the phone which definitely vibrated with new messages. Two or three. And it wasn’t even… Jack wasn’t sure what time it was, but it had to be quite early for Aster to be pissed about being awake.

He finale found it laying somewhere under his back. How did that didn’t make him uncomfortable was a mystery.

Jack brushed his finger on the screen and stared in awe at not three, but seven unopened messages. Okay, that was a little bit… bizarre. He quickly opened his message box and was ready to see few names popping on his list. But there was only one name bolded in front of his eyes. Hiccup. Hiccup finally wrote him back.

Jack sat up immediately and the quilt felt down from his body, pooling around his hips. He touched the boy’s name, feeling the anticipation flowing through his veins.

The images of well, kind of battered twins making selfies next to sleeping Hiccup and probably Fishlegs were not what he expected from those messages. But here Jack was, with four images, each subsequent photo weirder than the previous one.

The last one was the funniest to him as it was pretty blurred, but he could see some silhouette which looked like Astrid trying to grab the device the twins definitely had stolen from Hiccup. Good that someone was trying to look out after those people.

He directed his gaze at the written messages below the photos.

_OMG Jack I’m so so sorry!!_

_Ruff and Tuff took my phone when I was sleeping! D:_

_I hope they didn’t wake you up…_

Jack chuckled while reading, feeling some warm sensation bubbling inside his stomach. Aster turned on his bed and mumbled something under his nose, but did nothing more.

_No worries (_ _＾_ _∇_ _＾_ _) You didn’t wake me up (before you go go)~_

He clicked send, but he quickly started to write more.

_But where were you guyzzz? Partying without me?_

_‧_ _º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥_ _⌓_ _˂̣̣̥ )_ _‧_ _º·˚ I feel wounded now…_

And with that he slumped back on his pillow still with the phone in his hand. Two messages were sent and now he could only wait for Hiccup’s reply.

With his thumb he scrolled higher on the chat and clicked at the first photo. It also was a little blurred in corners, but he could clearly see Hiccup and Fishlegs huddled in their jackets in the back, leaning on each other and sleeping peacefully. Ruff and Tuff were smiling broadly with their teeth out to the camera. It looked like Ruffnut was the one taking the photo. Somehow it wouldn’t even surprise Jack if this was her idea in the first place.

The next one was similar, but the twins were making different faces. On the third one Jack could see some kind of shadow in the right corner that looked suspiciously akin to Snotlout. The fourth one was destroyed (or saved) by Astrid trying to grab the phone.

Well it was quite successful photo session in Jack’s opinion.

He checked the time at which they had been sent – all near 3.15 am. Okay, wow that was a little bit early (or late, depending on the person). Sometimes Jack had been staying till this hour to play some games or chat with some friend from the other side of the globe, but Hiccup and the rest? Not so much.

Coming to this, where they were? The background in every picture was very bright. Were these white walls? And the chairs Hiccup and Fishlegs were using looked kind of plastic and uncomfortable. Plus the amount of small scratches and adhesive bandages on the twins’ faces (they didn’t look that bad, but they had more of them than usual)…

Were they in a hospital?

At this idea Jack’s heart skipped a beat, but it didn’t leave a nice sensation after it. More like a nerve-wracking echo.

But his hand vibrated with another message appearing at the end of the chat.

_I’m glad then._

_And no, we weren’t partying._

Jack furrowed his eyebrows. Somewhere inside of him there was this lone idea to inform Hiccup that he didn’t wake up Jack, but instead woke up Bunny, but he decided not to voice (or write) it out. Hiccup could feel bad about it.

Besides it didn’t look like Hiccup was in too happy mood. Well, not many people were in a good mood first thing in the morning, but they had Christmas’ holidays! Not to mention tomorrow was New Year’s Eve. He should be in a little bit more enthusiastic mood.

But he wasn’t.

Jack quickly wrote a message, clicking send without thinking too much.

_May I ask what happened?_

He turned and faced the wall, bringing the quilt closer to his face and covering his neck. He still stuck out the hand to be able to stare at the chat. One minute, two minutes, three minutes…

Even after five there was still no new message from Hiccup. Maybe something really did happen? But judging from the photos nothing happened to the boy. He just looked tired on them. Jack should be more concerned about the twins…

But those were Ruffnut and Tuffnut, they were literally jumping from one problem to another. Jack was kind of amazed with their ability to literally make their way through everything which was tossed at them.

They definitely had some additional stone of luck or elixir hidden in their inventory.

Another ten minutes later Hiccup still didn’t answer, so Jack decided to sleep a little more. He put the phone under his pillow, where he knew it would wake him if it vibrated.

* * *

“I swear, if you ever do something like that one more time-“ Astrid hissed under her breath as she stopped the car and pulled up the handbrake.

“We promise to never step into a fight after an arcade game ever again. Or at least I promise. I’m not sure about my sis.” Tuffnut said, way too happily in this situation, but crossed his heart nevertheless.

“To be fair, I only jumped into it, because they were into it, Astrid. Believe me!” Snotlout grabbed the driver’s seat and leaned closer, watching out for the adhesive plaster on his nose.

“I was there Snotlout, I saw what happened. Let’s be glad that no one was majorly hurt, okay?” Astrid fumed, turning back and taking off her seatbelt. “And you, try to act more mature, please!”

Ruffnut leaned on the backseat, crossing her hands on the chest, but wincing at the scratches she had there.

“Sorry.” She mumbled. “This wasn’t very smart of us.”

“Thank you!” Astrid said, glancing up at the sky, or in this case at the roof of the car. “Now get your asses out.”

Everyone stepped out of the Thorstons’ car obediently as sheep. No one wanted to feel the rage of Astrid Hofferson on their skin. Hiccup was glad that theoretically he wasn’t endangered to be the victim of it right now.

But he could totally understand her. She had to be scared out of her wits by what had happened yesterday.

Hiccup stepped onto the snowy driveway with a sore moan, as he felt the pain in his limbs and joints from the uncomfortable sleep he just had. Fishlegs, who went out from the backseat, didn’t look that much better, especially with the dark circles around his eyes.

That was one way to spend the night. Hiccup knew that meeting with twins was a bad idea. Somehow even when they didn’t want to get into troubles, the troubles always found them.

Maybe because of that they all stuck together.

Gladly this night ended only with minor injuries and a peace treaty between both sides. The guy and his pack who had started it – what was his name again? Ah, right, Eret even had apologized when Astrid had been driving them all to the hospital. Although back then it was really terrifying, now Hiccup was kind of amused about the whole situation.

It all had started with Ruffnut kicking Eret’s butt in a game, then moved to the fight outside the Arcadia and ended on the peace pact in the hospital. Even a nurse had shaken her head at their behavior.

Now the only thing Hiccup wanted was to get into his bed and sleep. Probably for few hours, with a margin of error around one hundred percent.

“Okay, see you guys tomorrow. Eight at ours, right?” Ruffnut asked, glancing back at them with a small hesitant smile.

“Yeah, sure.” Hiccup answered, when Astrid didn’t open her mouth to speak and only gave Tuffnut the keys to their car back.

“Sweet, see you guys tomorrow then!”

Both twins went back into their house. Snotlout who was living in the opposite direction quickly said his goodbyes, apologizing to Astrid one more time. But the girl still brushed it off and didn’t answer.

She seriously was mad at them.

Hiccup and Fishlegs literally had to jog to catch up with her after they had split up with Snotlout.

“Astrid, come on, slow down. We aren’t as fast as you!” Hiccup gasped, feeling the exhaustion of the lack of sleep hanging tightly onto his limbs. The snow covering the pavement wasn’t helping him maneuver that much either.

Fishlegs next to him was already breathing hard.

The girl gladly heard them and stopped to wait for them to catch up. Half of her face was hidden behind bright pink scarf wrapped around her neck.

“Sorry…” She muttered when they were next to her.

“No worries.” Fishlegs gasped out, putting his hand on his chest and exhaling loudly. “But man, I don’t remember the last time I saw you so angry.”

Hiccup had to agree, but now he was more preoccupied by the ice beneath their feet to add something to this topic. He was accident-prone, so he had to be extra careful while walking on such slippery road.

“And you should be grateful you’re not on the end receiving my rage.” Astrid snapped, but her angry eyes quickly softened when she glanced at Fishlegs on her left. “Sorry.” She quickly added, lifting her hand and correcting the hat on her head. “It’s just pissed me off.”

Hiccup jumped to avoid one giant frozen puddle.

“What exactly?” He finally asked, when he was on more over save ground. “I mean, of course, I wasn’t too happy about spending the night at the hospital, but whenever we go out with twins and Snotlout something happens, so you should get used to it.”

“No, we shouldn’t get used to this.” Astrid said and kicked a rock or maybe it was very dirty snowball laying on the ground. “They are adults. They can’t get in every fight they want.”

“You should tell them that, not me.” Fishlegs noticed.

“I told them, but you were asleep, so you didn’t hear it.”

“Oh.” The boy flushed deep and scratched his cheek. “Never mind then.”

For few more meters and minutes they walked in silence, with Astrid stomping half a meter in front of them, still fuming with anger.

Hiccup wanted to take out his phone and reply to Jack, but he had a feeling this was somehow improper. Plus his hands were kind of frozen, even though he kept them in gloves and in pockets.

Fishlegs, on the other side of Astrid, glanced at him and tilted his head in the direction of the girl, cocking his eyebrow in the same time.

However Hiccup also didn’t know what was happening with his best-friend. Usually in their group Hiccup was the one getting pissed about every stupid thing twins had done, not Astrid. She was the balanced one, as half of her was filled with sweet fun and craziness and the other with sour authority and seriousness. So her bursting so suddenly right now wasn’t something which occurred too often. Or like ever.

Hiccup shrugged in response. Maybe it was just a bad day.

But in those few silent minutes they reached Astrid’s house. Gladly everyone’s family was previously informed about the situation, so there shouldn’t be too much yelling or any case of being grounded.

“You guys doing anything later?” She suddenly asked, in much nicer and softer tone now, although there was still some strained emotions playing on her cheeks.

Hiccup glanced at Fishlegs and vice versa. Did they have anything planned? He wasn’t sure. He did want to show Fishlegs his very clear quinolone he had made during laboratory, but he had a feeling school would be closed at that hour.

“Can we watch something later?” Astrid sighed, lifting her hand and gloomily massaging her forehead.

“Like a movie marathon?” Fishlegs rose his eyebrow, glancing back at the girl.

“Yeah, a movie marathon. I need to loosen up a little.” She said, brushing away one long, blond lock which had fallen on her forehead.

“But without yelling at us, right?” Hiccup inquired, a little unsurely, not sure if Astrid calmed enough to not explode like a heated flask without a reflux condenser.

Although the small smile which graced her pink lips was a tiny indicator that she was already cooling off.

“I’m not promising anything, but I’ll try.” She swirled around on her heel. “See ya later then.”

“Bye!” Fishlegs shouted, waving his hand, even though the blond haired girl definitely couldn’t see it.

Astrid disappeared in her house with one last glimpse at them and another yet familiar smirk playing on her lips.

Both he and Fishlegs turned around and started to slowly walk towards Hiccup’s home. Somewhere when they were on his street, Hiccup started chuckling under his nose.

Fishlegs glanced at him warily.

“What’s so funny?”

“Oh you know, after today’s night I can finally say it. Welcome home.” Hiccup said, feeling the soft fumes of happiness and joy starting to appear in his belly.

Fishlegs stretched his mouth in a smirk.

“It’s actually nice to be back.”

* * *

“Frost, wake up, it almost twelve.”

“Nooo…” Jack moaned, hiding further under his quilt. It was still too early. “Let me sleep for few more minutes…”

“You said the same an hour ago.”

Jack wasn’t sure if he really did it, but judging by their past, Aster was probably right. So the only logical thing was to turn around and open only one eye.

The sun was already hanging high on the sky and shining right through the window at Jack’s face and making him wince. It looked like even the sun was telling him to finally wake up. _Why you gotta be so rude?_

Jack groaned, but then the beautiful and a little bit bitter smell reached his nose. He lifted his head to check if what he smelled was reality or if Morpheus was still pulling his brain into dream land.

Nope, it was definitely reality. Aster was sitting in front of his computer, looking through some web pages and drinking coffee. Coffee! The beverage of the gods!

“Hey, make me some.” Jack said, sitting up and pushing the quilt away from his body.

Aster glanced at him, then shrugged and took another long sip.

“Go make it yourself. You know where the kitchen is.” He said, scrolling down.

“Ugh, rude. I’m the guest here!” Jack shouted, standing up and scratching his stomach.

“No, no you’re not.”

Jack groaned. Did he achieve some kind of a higher level when you stop being a guest at your friend’s house? He couldn’t remember when was the last time he went to Aster’s house and his friend actually took care of him. Jack always had to make himself coffee or tea and grab something from the fridge to eat. Not to mention – not even once or twice Jack actually had to make dinner here.

“Ugh, okay, I’ll make myself some!” Jack snorted and walked out of the room, leaving Aster alone, but probably content with himself. He definitely was smirking under his nose when Jack was closing the door.

Jack slowly stepped down the stairs, keeping his hand on the rails as he was still feeling a little bit sleepy. The house was quiet, but he could hear muted sounds of animals coming from behind the walls. It looked like Aster’s father was working since early hours.

Jack walked into the kitchen he knew very well and maneuvered around to the kettle. He poured water inside and put it on the stove. While waiting for water to boil, he decided to make himself some breakfast. And because Aster was so rude, he wasn’t going to do anything for him.

At first, two or three years ago when Aster literally had told him to make himself something to eat Jack had been pretty scared to do it. Come on, it wasn’t his own kitchen where he knew he could do anything. So back then he had been taking minimum of things he wanted to eat. However when once Aster’s father had seen him putting only cheese on the sandwich, he had started yelling something about vegetables and healthy eating and that they had too much food and ordered Jack to put at least a cucumber on it. So Jack had done just that. And after that he hadn’t been embarrassed about making himself food.

Now, he felt like it was his second home.

He danced around the kitchen, humming softly, cutting bread, putting butter and ham on it, waiting patiently for the water. He cut himself few slices of tomato and even basil, because it looked like rarely someone used it here, so he had to be the chosen one to use it!

The kettle started to whistle louder. But the noise wasn’t lonely, but accompanied by barking sound slowly starting to become louder and louder. Jack stopped putting the tomato on the sandwich in time to snap his head around and look as the door to the vet clinic suddenly burst open with some dog jumping out of it.

Well Jack should be more surprised about it, but he also got used to this.

Aster’s father – a man with similar to his son’s gray hair, tied in a ponytail near his nape and brilliant green eyes – followed the animal with his white coat rustling behind him like a superhero’s cape.

“Jack, catch him!”

Jack quickly located the chocolate dog actually making a turn in the living room and running into the kitchen. The poor animal probably didn’t spot him, too preoccupied with running for its life, because Jack almost had no problems with catching the dog as it was about to jump from the kitchen into the hallway.

The dog whimpered when Jack caught the skin on his or her neck, but didn’t move. He was glad that it didn’t try to bite him.

Aster’s father ran to Jack, holding a syringe in his gloved hand.

“Oh, you caught him!” He sighed heavily when he saw Jack holding the dog down. “Now if you hold him still for few more seconds…”

Jack patiently kept the dog in one place and observed as the man knelled and caught a lone wrinkle on the puppy neck. He inserted a needle there, quickly pushing the button down. The brown dog whined, but after two or three seconds the whole procedure was done.

“See, nothing to be afraid of.” The man said softly, massaging a place where he had put the needle in and nodding at Jack.

He quickly let go of the dog, which scampered a little in one place, but surprisingly didn’t start running away now.

They both stood up, Jack a little bit quicker than the man, who sighed as he straightened his bones.

“I’m getting too old for this.” Aster’s father murmured, but with a fond smile on his lips.

Jack quickly turned off the water which was whistling for the past minute or so.

The dog barked at the man and moved in a circle. His tail wagged slowly – left, right, left – similar to a metronome. Even though the dog wasn’t that small, as he was reaching almost Jack’s knees, he couldn’t be that old. Maybe a year, or a little bit older.

Aster’s father grabbed a ball which laid on the counter and showed it to the dog, which barked one more time, but stuck out his tongue. With one throw of the yellow ball, the puppy was gone in the hallway, chasing it playfully.

“Thanks for your help.” The man said, turning to Jack with a soft smile dancing on his lips.

“No problem, mister. Always at your service.” Jack responded, grinning back and moving to the stove. “Do you want some coffee?”

“Oh, if you don’t mind making me some then yes.”

Jack moved to take out another cup and pour himself and the man coffee. He remembered that Aster’s dad didn’t really sugar his drinks, but added milk. In few second coffees were ready and Jack passed one cup to the man.

“Thank you, Jack.” He said, taking a sip quickly, just in time for the dog to return with a spongy, yellow ball sticking out from his mouth. His tail was wagging fast, but he stood patiently in front of the doctor.

The man kneeled, took out the ball and threw it once again, but now in different direction.

“I see your work never ends.” Jack commented, glancing at the dog. With one hand he grabbed the sandwich.

“I can’t remember when I had holidays last time.” The man said in a happy, yet tired tone.

“Maybe short vacation could be good for your health.” Jack noticed, taking a bite. He turned around and leaned on the counter.

“First, I need to find some person to replace me while I’m gone.” The man shook his head, just in time to hear the soft trots of the dog returning with his prey.

“What about Aster?” Jack asked, swallowing first. Maybe in the Bunnymund’s house they didn’t really care about propriety and traditions, but Jack still would feel bad talking with someone while eating.

“He still has school.” The man said, kneeling and taking out the ball. However this time he didn’t throw it, but put back on the counter. “And his own hobbies. I don’t want to take him away from those.” He added, now more quiet. “He still helps me a lot nevertheless and I’m grateful for that. But I need a full-time worker who would help me every day.”

Jack hummed, nodding along the way. He knew many people helped in the clinic, but usually Aster’s father was doing most of the job. But Jack rarely had heard him complaining about it. The man loved his job. So did Aster.

Everyone knew that no matter what his dad would say, Aster would still chose to be a vet in the future. Not because it was a family business, but simply because he loved taking care of animals. Jack would even say that he loved everything small, but well… he once had said it in the middle of the street and some woman had glanced at them terrified, dragging her surprised kid away. Aster had been so close to killing Jack back then, but well to be even more honest Bunny was good with kids. Not in the bad and creepy way of course!

“Were you thinking about taking some kind of intern?” Jack proposed, finishing his first sandwich and glancing at the man.

The dog patiently waited for the man to throw the ball, but when he noticed that it won’t happen fast he sat down, still looking up.

“Yeah, but I’m not sure if the one Labor Office will give me will be good for this job…”

“Maybe you should put a notice about work on the internet? I’m sure someone in Burgess is capable of helping you.”

Aster’s father didn’t answer and it looked like he was contemplating about Jack’s last proposition. He only took two pauses – one to take a sip and one to pet a dog, which now licked his hand happily.

From a pocket of his coat he took out a small bone shaped treat and gave it to the dog.

“I definitely can try that. Maybe this way I’ll finally have some vacations.” The man finally said, smiling to himself.

“And you should take Aster with you. Lately he is too grumpy.” Jack said with a warm chuckle accenting the end of the sentence, but also with a dose of seriousness mixed in between words.

“Oh, you noticed it too?” The man asked, looking at him and lifting his cup closer to his mouth, but not taking a sip. “At first I thought something happened between you guys, but now I see this isn’t the case.”

“No, everything is fine between us.” Jack confirmed, taking his own cup and taking a sip of delicious coffee he had to make himself. “Well at least I think everything is fine. He doesn’t act different.” Maybe only a little. ”And he hang out with us just normally. Well except that one time he had to help you with a shot deer, so he couldn’t spend time with us.” Jack added, remembering what Aster had written him when Jack had tried to surprise Hiccup on their date… fake-date. Totally fake-date! Well if Aster had been there, it would be a normal date, only Jack would be the fifth… or third wheel?

Aster’s father suddenly became serious, furrowing his eyebrows at what Jack had just said.

“What shot deer?” He asked, putting his drink down.

“Well around two weeks ago he told me he couldn’t hang out because he had to help you in the clinic with a shot deer.” Jack repeated the story, now more slowly while adding more details. But something in the surprise clearly floating on the man’s face was making Jack cringe inside.

Aster’s dad stared at him with wide eyes, only to sigh suddenly very loud. His free hand massaged his eyelids, with his arms slowly slumping down like he was surrendering to the information he just received.

Jack didn’t like it, not even one bit.

“Jack, I don’t want to sadden you, but there was no case of deer shooting in the last two months, so…” Aster’s father started and stopped, glancing at him warily and unsteady.

Jack understood in a heartbeat and it felt like everything inside of him suddenly trembled in their bases. The plaster in his brain dropped down, making a cloud of ashes which rose and fogged his mind for a second.

Aster lied to him.

And even though Jack suddenly felt anger and dolor boiling inside his body, he lifted his head and smiled at the man.

“I’m sure he had his own reasons.” Was the only thing Jack added to this topic.

“I hope they were good…” The man muttered and finished his coffee. “If you need me, I’ll be in my clinic. Thank you for the coffee.” With that Aster’s father put the cup into the sink, waved at Jack and disappeared together with the dog in the clinic next to the house.

Jack was left alone and suddenly very, very lonely.

Aster lied to him. Aster lied right in his face. Well, that wasn’t right, he didn’t tell him that face to face per se. He had only sent a message. Which kind of was good and terrible both in the same time.

Bunny was always a straightforward person, always telling what he thought face to face, without hesitation and often without second thoughts. Guess that wasn’t the truth anymore.

Jack felt terrible with this information. Not because Aster lied to him, because these things happens sometimes – between friends, families and close people. Now he was mad and sorrowful, because Jack was the main reason Aster had started to act like that. How else would Jack explain lying to him and not wanting to tell what was wrong if this didn’t concern Jack somehow?

So it was about him.

Which made entire matter even worse.

Something in his chest constricted, like suddenly an invisible ivy trapped his lungs, making it hard to breath.

Why did Jack do to make Aster act like that? Why didn’t Aster say anything then? What was he missing?

Jack took the plate with the second sandwich in one hand and the cup of coffee in other and slowly moved back to Aster’s room. He had a feeling he was walking as loud as elephant. It was probably only his imagination, but his legs were really heavy now.

However Aster only glanced at Jack when he stepped inside.

“Took you long enough.” He commented.

“I helped your father catch a dog.” Jack said and moved to the other chair standing in front of Aster’s computer.

He put the plate down together with his coffee. Jack was in the middle of grabbing some clean clothes when he saw a hand reaching for his sandwich. He quickly spun around and hit the palm away. Oh, the sweet yelp coming from Aster’s mouth was a balm to his ears in the morning, well… late morning. Late noon?

Never mind.

“Make your own damn sandwich.” Jack chirped with a toothy grin.

Bunny retreated his limb and massaged it slowly, glaring at him.

“Gee, thanks.”

“That’s for not wanting to make me coffee.” Jack added, then unfortunately had to grab the plate and together with his fresh clothes go to the bathroom.

Seriously, Bunny was acting sometimes like a kid. Jack was sure that his friend would eat Jack’s breakfast if he was to leave it there. Although it was kind of weird to brush teeth with sandwich waiting near the sink.

After a quick shower he was ready to return to finish his breakfast.

Bunny didn’t move from his spot. Well he had to move at some, because now in front of him was a bowl with cereals and milk. Jack snickered under his nose at this sight, but Aster didn’t look at him.

“Someone messaged you.” He only mumbled when Jack put the plate down.

The white haired teen walked to his pillow and fished out the phone still laying under it. Indeed he had one unopened message from no one than… Hiccup.

He maybe pushed the button too hastily, but no one needed to know the truth.

_Twins got in a fight and we had to drive them to the hospital to patch them up xP._

What? A hospital?!

“What happened? Who is in the hospital?” Aster asked, swirling around on his chair and facing Jack. Uh oh, did he accidently say (or in this case yell) it out loud? Totally possible.

Jack slumped down on the chair, opening the response tab and quickly writing down a reply.

“Well, no one, I think.” He muttered, clicking buttons at the speed of light. “Hiccup went out yesterday with the twins and they had a fight with someone.”

“Hiccup was in a fight?” Aster asked, the pure surprise and hint of fear pretty audible in the tone he just used.

“No, it looks like only twins got bumped.” Jack added, finishing the message.

_Everyone is alright? Were they seriously hurt or only received scratches?_

“Seriously…” Aster whispered, pushing his gray fringe away from his forehead, but also staring expectantly at Jack’s phone.

Which gladly quickly announced new message.

_No, only scratches, but the doctor decided to keep them there till morning. Me, Astrid and Fishlegs are okay C:._

“Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs are okay.” Jack repeated the message to his friend who tried to look at what Hiccup had written Jack.

Bunny sighed, slumping back on his chair and rolling few centimeters away.

Jack looked up at him with a small smile, but quickly returned to his phone, writing another response.

_Don’t give me a heart attack! ( >д<)_

_Aww you_ _do care~._

However before Jack was able to send his reply, the phone blinked one more time.

_But seriously, don’t worry. We are fine. Only Astrid isn’t. She just burst like a trinitrotoluene and started yelling at them ):._

Jack stared at the word.

“What is trinitrotoluene?” He asked out loud, glancing up at Aster.

The teen in front of him looked at Jack and rose one eyebrow, then swirled away on the chair.

“Seriously Jack? It’s TNT, you should know at least that much.”

“Well sorry I’m not a nerd first thing in the morning!”

“It’s almost 1 pm!” Aster shouted, throwing his hands in the air and then pointing at the electric clock standing on the tidy and neat desk.

Jack confirmed that indeed it was close to 1 pm. But hey, they had holidays, so the time didn’t matter during those times.

_I’m glad everyone is okay then. Except for Astrid of course (_ _ﾟ▽ﾟ_ _)/_

_Me too, now if you’ll excuse me, I need some sleep._

_The hospital chairs weren’t that comfortable if you ask me._

_No worries, g’night (_ _。_ _-ω-)zzz_

_Goodnight Jack C:_

And with that the white haired teen finally put his phone away.

“So I assume everything is okay, not counting bruises on the psyche that is?” Aster asked, looking at his computer, where he was currently talking with… Tooth. Jack could recognize her avatar everywhere.

“It looks like that.” Jack mumbled, finally taking his second sandwich. “Come on, turn on some funny vines on YouTube while I eat.”

The gray haired teen groaned, but opened another tab and did as Jack requested.

Maybe Aster was sometimes harsh and callous, but he still was Jack’s best friend and he proved it a hundred (if not even more) times. And Jack knew that no one was a saint, that Aster probably lad lied to him in the past too. So why now was so different…?

Jack hated the feeling of not being able to help. He hated it even more, because it concerned his best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished it! Seriously, it took me so long! Almost two months since the last update! But the finals held me captive, then (or maybe before) I was re-writing this chapter and boom, somehow I’m updating it quite late D:!
> 
> Few nerdy facts:  
> *Analysis of errors – so basically it is a part of the report where you should include a calculation of how much the results vary from expectations or calculate range of errors you’ve made. Sometimes it is a pain in the ass, because some formulas are weird and it’s difficult to calculate errors from them. But you can get the idea if the method is good and precise, judging by the size of the error.  
> *Distilling cow receiver – this is quite comfortable distillate’s receiver, as you only have to turn the receiver a little bit and the liquid will be dripping into another flask. Usually used with vacuum distillation, because it would be fricking uncomfortable to operate around atmospheric and lower pressure D: Trust me, it is terrible! xD  
> * Alveolar sac – terminal dilation of the alveolar ducts that give rise to alveoli in the lung. I maybe do not know a lot about biology (sorry!), but the only thing I remember is that you can’t allow for the Alveolar sacks to like close xD.  
> *Dripping into the flask during the extraction – this is something that always makes us laugh during labs, because seriously, everyone makes this mistake (including me =D!). Like when you extracting the bottom layer you have to take out the plug from the separatory funnel, because other way it won’t almost work. But this is precious when someone is wondering why it’s not dripping and then duuh, the plug is still in xD.  
> *Lower vacuum in water pumps during winter – so yeah, basically during winter you can get lower vacuum in the water pumps. Or at least this is what my book for organic chem labs told me so xDD.
> 
> And few answers:  
> Knife_cz – Thank youuuuuuuu <3!  
> daisiesonice – Totally agree =D! And thanks :3!  
> Toffyy – Noooo, don’t dieeee D:! I need someone with whom I can talk on Skype D:!  
> blitz_lili – Dead, gone, totally crushed! xD I don’t know why, but always The Emperor’s New Groove was very warm movie to me and full of family love <3 And I totally love the characters there. Somehow I like Snotlout even more with every chapter, is this even possible xDD? And Aster, yeah, something definitely is troubling him, but he is stubborn, so it won’t be easy to crack him open! Omg, yes, I just can imagine Pitch’s glare while walking around fully decorated school xDD! Looking now at the amount of chapters… 8 and nothing much happened xD Hope you’re buckled up for more slow-build! xD  
> babygroot – Omg, you don’t even know how happy your comment made me! <3 I really like them together, but to tell you the truth there are some times when I want to push this fanfic into different direction, but I’m like no – I decided on Hijack! And yop, my semester just started like few weeks ago and I need all the luck I can get <3! And Aster is probably one of the sexiest characters here, if not the most haha >3


	9. Avogadro's law

**Avogadro’s law –** equal volumes of gases under identical temperature and pressure conditions will contain equal numbers of particles (atoms, ion, molecules, electrons, etc.).

 

Hiccup slowly walked down the stairs, holding tightly onto the handrail. He knew well how unlucky his steps were while he was still dizzy and drowsy. Few bruises (quite painful) were a good reminder of this fact.

His hand groggily massaged his eyelids, trying to force nerves to work more energetically and stay open for at least few minutes. Until he got his coffee, of course. Which was his goal now.

He shuffled into the kitchen, yawning along the way. Fishlegs was still asleep in his room. They both had escorted Astrid to her home around 2 a.m. Actually both Hiccup’s and Astrid’s parents were okay with her staying over, but she had said that in the morning she had some errands to do. So in the middle of the night they had to put on warm clothes and go out into the cold and unforgiving outside world.

“Good morning Hiccup.”

Hiccup gladly was too tired to be surprised or scared, so he only turned around to stare at his father sitting near the table and munching slowly on a toast while reading a newspaper.

“Oh, hey Dad. I didn’t know you would be up.” Hiccup answered, moving to the electric kettle and checking if there was enough water for two cups. “I thought you have a free day.”

“Indeed I have.” Stoick answered, lifting his head up at him.

“Then why did you wake up so early?” Hiccup asked and turned around to rummage through shelves in mighty search for some cups. This could be quite a tough task as most of the dishes were currently in the sink. Ugh, he has to wash it as some point, preferably before going to twins. “You could sleep in.”

To be honest, he didn’t expect an answer. They both were morning birds, Stoick because of the work and Hiccup simply, because he preferred not to waste whole day by sleeping.

Jack probably had totally different opinion on this matter.

“I couldn’t sleep. Besides, it isn’t exactly that early.”

Hiccup glanced back in the middle of climbing the counter and reaching for a higher shelf to grab two clean cups. Or at least he hoped they were clean.

“Oh…” He mumbled in reply. Very smart. Somehow when he was speaking with his own family there were some kind of noises inside his brain, which didn’t allow him to speak properly. Maybe the gears in his head needed few tweaks here and there.

Hiccup jumped off the counter with two cups, which he put down and then poured inside some instant coffee. The water was starting to boil softly in the kettle and they still didn’t really moved forward with the topic.

Hiccup simply didn’t know what to say. Or more like he knew what he wanted to say. If he could be even more precise, he even knew what he wanted to ask about, but he simply didn’t know… how to start.

Wasn’t there any compendium about how to talk with your parents? Because Hiccup would gladly buy every volume and read them all in one sitting if this could help him.

“Soo…” Hiccup cleared his throat and poured the boiling and steaming water inside two cups. “Did you meet with your friend? You know… the one you were telling me about earlier?”

Hiccup had a feeling he didn’t have to add the last part, but somehow asking so bluntly about it just didn’t seem right. Or maybe it was his lack of conversing abilities that he needed to blame.

For few seconds there was only silence behind him. He searched for a milk and sugar, waiting patiently for the reply he hoped would come soon. Did Stoick not hear him? Maybe he was just avoiding the answer. Maybe Hiccup really should keep his mouth shut…

Thousands of thoughts were running through his head and every new one was worse than the previous one. His heart beated loudly in his chest, working on the highest speed, pumping blood like crazy into his veins.

Could he get a heart attack from it? Because he had a feeling he was very close to it.

“Yeah, I did…” Stoick finally replied, unnaturally quiet like he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to prolong this topic or not.

Hiccup gulped, pouring himself and Fishlegs milk and his friend also two teaspoons of sugar. His hand trembled and few cubes of sugar fell onto the counter, which he brushed with his sleeve quickly.

“And…” He cleared his throat. “And how did it go?”

Hiccup wasn’t sure if he could turn around and look at his father. Stoick would probably immediately notice how nervous Hiccup was. He knew he shouldn’t feel nervous around his father, but this stress had its roots somewhere else. He feared he would say something he shouldn’t have and feel guilty later on.

But he really, really wanted to help somehow.

He heard as his father shuffled with the newspaper, then lifted the cup with morning, strong and black coffee to his lips to put it down without even taking a sip. A soft taps of fingers accompanied the thick and silent bubble around them.

Hiccup waited, occupying himself with moving to the sink and starting to clean the dishes. Just the perfect amount of dish soap, a warm water to soak everything in and he began to brush bowls first.

“It was…” Stoick started, only to stop in the middle, like he searched for correct words. Maybe he did, maybe he just wasn’t sure what to actually say. “It was… okay, but weird. Kind of uncomfortable.”

“How so?” Hiccup nudged softly, hoping he wouldn’t sound too disturbing or noisy.

“Well, it’s just… we sat there, not knowing what to say at first.” Okay this was a good start. Hiccup hummed in response to show that he was listening. ”Then he started to ask me about my life, how I was doing nowadays. Then I asked him about his life. And well… nothing really happened, but…”

“It was simply off?” Hiccup suggested, glancing above his arm at his dad.

Stoick wasn’t looking at Hiccup, but at his own intertwined palms resting on the counter.

“Uhm yeah. It’s just… it was uncomfortable how we tried to act like nothing had happened and…” Stoick massaged his forehead. “He really looked happy to see me, but I just was feeling out of this place and situation.”

“But you’ll probably never see him again.” Hiccup nudged, cleaning two plates under the water.

And there was one more time thick silence behind him. This crunchy, dry and heavy stillness, which was making the hair on his arms stand up.

Hiccup turned off the water and turned around.

“Dad?” He asked unsurely.

“It’s just… he seemed so happy to see me that I had to agree on another meeting.”

“Dad!” Hiccup shouted, quickly covering his mouth afterwards and glancing at the stairs, like Fishlegs could come running down just because he rose his voice.

“I know, I know.” Stoick continued. “But he was my close friend when we were young and I can’t turn my back on him now.”

This shut Hiccup up. He stared at his father for few more seconds, thinking whether he should add something or not.

He tried imagining himself in Stoick’s shoes. What if Astrid did something terrible? What if she could change so much that there would be almost no trace of the same joyful, but strong independent woman she is now? What if their future roads would be totally different and not intertwined with each other?

Would Hiccup turn his back on her? No matter how uncomfortable would she make him? No matter what bad things she would have done?

Hiccup wasn’t sure what he would do.

He definitely would want to still meet with her, try to help, maybe even convince her to change her ways of behaving.

He couldn’t really imagine living without Astrid. Without her constant messages about nothing in particular, without her lame jokes, without her worrying over him, even when he was telling her that he was okay and without her presence near him. The simple idea that Hiccup could lose her was making breathing difficult.

“Yeah…” Hiccup finally said, feeling his throat closing, like it wanted to prevent him from speaking more. “I understand.”

He really did. But right now he cared more about his father’s well-being, than his friendship with some kind of man Hiccup never even had met!

“Thank you.” Stoick said and smoothened the newspaper.

For what his father was thanking him, Hiccup wasn’t sure, but he didn’t want to know in the end. He took both cups and walked slowly upstairs to his room, where Fishlegs was still sleeping soundly. So Hiccup’s yell didn’t wake him up. Somehow he wasn’t that surprised.

He looked around. The empty chips’ packets and plastic foils with cookies still inside caught his attention. In the middle of the night he was too tired to take care of them. From under the wooden desk he took out a trash bin and slowly started to push everything inside, together with crumbs of food scattered everywhere. He had to clean the room a little before going to Ruff and Tuff.

Yesterday he had been still pretty excited about going. The nerdy game night didn’t happen often, plus Astrid calmed down a lot. However now there was an empty bubble growing inside his stomach. It was doing nothing, but making him feel uncomfortable.

He hoped that spending time with his friends could subside it.

* * *

“Aww Aster, you look so nice.”

“You’re telling me that only because you bought me this shirt.”

“Maybe, but it’s good. I knew you would look good in it when I was in the shop.”

Jack rolled his eyes from his place near the front door, where he was leaning on the wall and observing his two best-friends. He preferred not to say out loud what he was really thinking about the t-shirt Tooth gave Aster. He wasn’t sure which side actually to pick – flatter Tooth and make fun of Aster, or be on Bunny’s side and tell the truth.

Besides, Jack was sure Aster only wore it to make the girl happy.

“Are you ready guys?” He finally asked, checking the time on his phone. They were late, but well every celebrity had to be always late.

“Almost.” Tooth murmured and turned Aster around to correct his hair.

“Tooth, stop it!” Bunny groaned, trying to grasp his friend’s hands and push them away. However Tooth wasn’t stopping in her fight of pushing some locks up and other patting down.

“You both must look good.” She shushed him down, smacking his palms away with a glare. ‘Well Jack not so much as he already has a boyfriend.”

Jack coughed.

“Fake boyfriend.” He said between clearly fake coughs. The everlasting smirk was present on his lips though.

“Boyfriend nevertheless for everyone else.” Tooth answered, glancing back at him for a second, but quickly returning to correcting Aster’s gray hair.

After few minutes and a check in the mirror they were all ready to go. This time they didn’t take Aster’s car, simple because they all wanted to enjoy the party and drink something. Besides, Jack was sure it would be fun to return home in the middle of the night by foot.

They had done it a year ago and two years ago. Jack liked to call it a tradition in his head and enjoyed every moment of it – no matter how many times Aster had told him that he was cold or Tooth had fell into a snowdrift. It all was a charm of the night and the very first day of the New Year. And what could be better than spending it with his two best-friends?

And this year… this year maybe he would also spend the first few minutes with Hiccup and his group. Tooth was right. They were dating in everyone else’s eyes, so they should show up together on that kind of events. And Jack maybe wanted to see him. Just a little bit.

They all said goodbyes to Aster’s father who had to stay in the clinic for the night. He always had two or three patients during New Year’s Eve which had to be taken care of immediately, so he couldn’t help but be at work. Not that he really minded.

They shuffled slowly in the direction of the party’s house, Jack at the front and Tooth and Aster a little bit behind him, because the pavement didn’t allow them to walk in one line. Jack didn’t mind, as he still clearly could talk with his friends, few times simply walking back to converse with them.

They passed few people walking in different directions. Some of them were from their school and some were students from the near community college. Jack welcomed every known face with a happy yell and a wish for a Happy New Year. Some of the people were already a little bit drunk. Aster grumbled something under his nose when they passed two girls who were singing happily and leaning on each other with a bottle of champagne in one girl’s hand.

“Come on, Bunny, loosen up and try to have fun.” Jack said, waving at the girls. The teens grinned wildly at him and waved back. Yup, clearly intoxicated with alcohol, but at least they looked like they were having fun.

“I will be having more fun when we will finally be inside the building.” Aster responded. “Where will be warm. Or at least hope it will be…” He added after a second thought. “We could simply have taken my car and be there in few minutes, but no!”

“Hey, you didn’t drink on the last party, so nu-huh!”

“Technically we’re not adults yet, so like… we shouldn’t really drink at all, but I think no one listens to me anyway…” Aster mumbled into his scarf.

“Well these two girls definitely didn’t listen to you.” Tooth said, pointing in the direction where drunk, but very happy girls disappeared. “And also no one tells you to get drunk.”

“I will not get drunk.”

“Great, because I don’t want to spend another night in the bathroom.” Jack said, winking at Tooth.

She blushed deeply, but snickered back.

“Aww why? You looked quite comfy there.” Aster remarked, smirking and looking back at Jack.

“Hey, you saw us?” Jack tilted his head. He wasn’t informed about this. Now that he started to think about it, it was totally possible. Aster had to look for them at some point during the night.

“Yeah, I did. A big pile of people leaning on the bathtub. Adorable”

“At least we were warm.” Tooth pointed, but then put a hand to her back. “However I had cramps in my muscles for few days after it.”

“Yeah, me too.” Jack added and turned around to direct his friends to Marina’s house.

Even from a street away they already heard people and music coming from their destination. And when they turned around the corner, they saw few people standing outside, smoking and talking with each other.

When they walked there, everyone welcomed them warmly, a little bit drunk, but with smiling faces. Jack knew most of the guests as they were their old teammates from the football team, who already had finished high-school. Sinbad – Marina’s boyfriend – had been a Captain of their team when Jack was still a freshman, but both boys quickly had found a common language.

To this point that now, two years later, Jack and Sinbad were still good friends.

Besides, Marina and Tooth also knew each other and were often meeting outside the school grounds actually. They once had been neighbors when they had been kids and the friendship was still going strong after so many years.

Leaving the smoking group outside, Jack, Aster and Tooth rang a doorbell. They could simply step inside as the door definitely wasn’t closed, but Aster insisted on them being gentlemen (and a gentlelady in case of Tooth).

Quickly after, they heard footsteps coming from inside and the door swung open.

A tall girl with short, dark brown hair (that almost looked black under different angles) smiled broadly as she spread her arms in joy.

“Hey Tooth!” She squealed, almost jumping at Tooth and hugging her strongly. “It’s good to see you.”

Jack kind of suspected that Marina had a big sister’s syndrome. She was two years older than the rainbow haired girl and had no siblings, but from what Jack knew, when they both had been kids they had spent every minute together.

“It’s good to see you too.” Tooth responded as joyfully as Marina did, hugging her tightly, but then quickly letting go.

Marina nodded and then turned to the boys. They weren’t welcomed with a hug, but she also grinned at them.

“Hey Jack! Hey Aster!” She waved her hand. There was a soft glint – a reflection of the light on one finger, but it was gone as quickly as the female stopped waving. “It’s good to see you too.”

“Wait, no hug for us?” Jack asked, trying to sound really disappointed. “You wound me.”

Marina rolled her eyes and the golden earrings moved like boats on the ocean.

“Of course, because it would be dreams coming true for you.” She sighed, but moved from the doorway to let them in. “Besides, I heard you have a boyfriend. By the way, congratulations.”

Oh uh, wow, the rumors were spreading far and wide. Because Jack wasn’t pestered about it for such long time, he was out of practice with responding now.

“Oh, thanks.” He said, second or two later than normal. Maybe no one would notice.

“You have to introduce him to us one day.” Marine said, then shushed them farther inside when they all get rid of their coats and hung them somewhere on hooks. It was hard task as almost all of them were taken already.

“Sure.” Jack said, sighing internally.

Yet another person who wanted to dive into this sea of mess. He knew they had no bad intentions, but…

No, maybe they will never meet in the end and everyone will forget about it? It was a possibility, of course. However Jack really, really wanted for this to happen. The guilty munching on his consciousness was leaving a hole in his behavior and soul.

They stepped into the living room.

Twins’ parties were known for being one of the loudest parties in Burgess with tons of people going in and out. Even Jack wasn’t sure whether Ruffnut or Tuffnut did know who was invited or not. In the end it didn’t really matter unless someone made a ruckus or destroyed something. Then it was literally hell for the poor person.

Sinbad was known for partying hard. Come on, after twins he was the second in line in throwing the biggest and craziest parties. But well, that was before he really had started to date Marina – who was a chain on his weird impulses. But well, everyone agreed that it was a relationship with good vibrations. Sinbad loosened up with the parties and Marina started to open up a little bit.

And it was pretty visible.

The living room was decorated with colorful reflectors somebody had brought, but there was no DJ standing in the corner, smashing buttons and playing loud music. The sound was coming from giant speakers standing in different places. If someone wanted to dance there was some free space in the middle of the living room where already few pairs were moving their hips to the beat. Most people were sitting on the colorful pillows laying everywhere on the floor. It was an easy way for everyone to have their seat and you could arrange them however you wanted.

They saw Sinbad – a tall, broad man with stumble on his chin, sitting in the corner and chatting wildly with their old teammates. The bottle of beer was in his hand, but he was moving them so fast, some people had to move away to not be hit by it.

“Sinbad!” Marina shouted, glaring at him or to be more precise at his hands. “Please don’t spill it on the wall.”

“Won’t do hon-!” The male started, but then jumped to his feet with a lout whooping sound leaving his mouth. “My stars! I thought you would never get here!” He excused himself from the circle to run to them, smiling from ear to ear.

With his free hand he ruffled Jack’s hair very, very painfully. Why he wasn’t in a rugby team with such strength was a mystery to everyone.

“My little Jackie!” He shouted. “Didn’t see you in ages!”

“We saw each other almost a month ago.” Jack said, trying to break free from the mighty arms of the legendary Captain of their team. “And you didn’t see Bunny in a long time too!”

This words got Jack what he wanted. Sinbad stopped ruffling his hair and jumped to Aster. Jack stared with satisfaction as yet his another friend was taken in captivity by Sinbad. It kind of looked ridiculous to see Aster (of all people!) getting a noogie from someone.

Maybe he should take few photos? Nah, he wasn’t that kind of person. However…

“Bunny! Quiet as always.” Sinbad finally freed Aster from the pain.

They all knew he was doing it, because he liked them, but man, it did hurt.

“Yeah…” The gray haired teen said and then straightened his body. Jack could swear he heard Aster’s neck bones cracking when he looked up. Ouch. “Good to see you in… good shape.” Aster massaged the aching place.

“Nobody is gonna take care of those guns, beside me, so I have to do everything to keep them safe.” Sinbad shouted, flexing his biceps and triceps and posing for everyone to see.

Jack saw Marina rolling her eyes, but then she disappeared in the hallway. Some male behind Sinbad whistled at him and started to clap, which the brown haired man commented with a bow. Yeah, he did love to show off.

“Bring your guns here and help me!” Marina shouted from the hall or maybe from a kitchen now.

Sinbad pouted at the not so kind yell, but turned to them and pointed with his head in the direction of the voice.

“Come with me, you can grab something to drink for yourselves.” He said, pushing past Jack, but glancing back to check if they were going.

Having Sinbad for yourself was almost impossible during parties, because it looked like someone always wanted to steal him for the rest of the night, so Jack took the offer with a grin forming on his mouth.

“So how are your lives? Something interesting happened in this sad school of ours I gladly left behind me?” Sinbad asked, stealing a can of beer from a table, next to some boy who definitely was drinking it. But well, he was the host of the party, so who could blame him for that.

“Nothing really.” Jack shrugged, stepping closer on one side. “Pitch is always moody, the food is still inedible, the toilet at second floor still plugged. Same old stuff.”

“Ugh, this school is more boring now without me. Not that I really want to come back there.” Sinbad took a sip.

“And how are you doing?” Aster asked from the other side.

“Good. Very good actually. We’re living fine with Mari and I think her parents really start to like me. You know… after what happened…”

Oh, fun fact for Jack – Sinbad had drove into Marina’s father’s car one day in the parking lot. It wasn’t really Sinbad’s fault. Just some drunk dude had been half a meter away from driving right into Sinbad’s own car, so he had to make a turn with less fatalities and boom! Weird way to properly meet with your future girlfriend, but some girls could even say it was romantic.

But the car had needed repairs, so that wasn’t that nice.

“That’s good then.” Aster murmured, not really knowing probably what else to say.

“They let you do a party in her house, so that’s something.” Jack pipped from the other side as the three of them walked into the kitchen.

Marina and Tooth plus three more girls were chatting happily there with glasses of wine in their hands.

Sinbad moved to his girlfriend and smooched her cheek quickly.

“For what did you want my guns?”

Marina tried to have a calm and emotionless façade, but the happy dimples beneath her eyes were telling everyone that she was happy.

“Take those crates into the living room. I don’t want everyone to walk between kitchen and living room when they want something to drink.” She said, pointing at the four crates standing near the sink.

“Yes, ma’am.” Sinbad said, saluting to her and turning around to grab the first crate.

Jack and Aster stepped to him and took the next two ones.

They moved in the hazardous journey back to the living room, but now their pace was much slower. Twenty beers definitely weighted some.

“You look happy together.” Aster said, stopping for a second to lift the crate and correct his hold on it.

“We are happy together.” Sinbad confirmed after a small pause. There was a ghost of a sad smile on his lips, but it quickly disappeared under the usual smirk. “At first it wasn’t all hearts and butterflies. Well maybe first few months were.” Sinbad looked up at the ceiling, like it held all answers to unspoken questions. “But you know, after some time the curtain of first impression and puppy love fell down and you are met with the reality. Then it is a real test of feelings. And let me tell you that keeping up and pleasing this woman is the hardest job on Earth.”

“Aww, but she is so nice to us.” Jack said.

“Don’t let the outside image fool you. When we are alone she can turn into venomous snake, ready to bite me when I make one wrong step.” Sinbad leaned to him, almost whispering conspiratorially into Jack’s ear.

Aster lifted his eyebrow, hearing everything the man had said.

Sinbad just loved to be a little bit melodramatic.

“Maybe she has her reasons.” Jack proposed, moving back and trying hard not to snort right into his friend’s face.

“Not every reason is a good reason.” Sinbad sighed, straightening his back. “But I love her even when she is mad at me for something I did, even when I have no idea what I did wrong.”

Jack glanced at Aster, but the teen wasn’t looking back at him. His eyes were directed somewhere at the floor, with eyebrows furrowed in thoughtful manner.

“Maybe with Hiccup you won’t have similar problems.”

Jack almost crashed into a group of three people chattering in the entrance to the living room. He could almost blame the carpet, because well, it was very easy to slip on it.

But gladly no one got hurt and no bottle was shattered.

“You okay, Jack?” Sinbad asked, stopping for a second.

“Uhm yeah.” He swallowed hard, feeling the sudden loud beats of his heart, drumming inside his chest and ears. “I just got lost in thoughts. That’s all…” It was better than lying about the carpet. “And I guess we’ll see. We still on the puppy love level.”

Or maybe it was only starting.

“Oh, you still blush while thinking about him. That’s so cute.” Sinbad cooed next to him, and even though it was supposed to sound sweet, it was kind of terrifying. “I’m sure Marina only growl while thinking about me.” He shook his head, shivering, like he remembered something terrible. “By the way, congratulations. Little Jackie is slowly growing up to evolve into a man some day!”

“You know I dated other people before Hiccup, right?” Jack wasn’t even dating Hiccup, but he bit his tongue.

“I know. But the fact that you wanted to keep it a secret for him means that you’re starting to think like an adult.” Sinbad passed few people and put the crate near one speaker. He brushed the sweat from his forehead and made place for Jack and Aster to put their boxes down too.

“Uhm, right.” Jack murmured, feeling his stomach dropping and maybe even crashing, shattering into dozen pieces. “It didn’t go too well as you can see.”

“Ah past is in the past. A simple mistake.” The taller male waved his hand. “Happens to everyone.”

“So how do you know about us?” Jack asked instead, when he had nothing in his arsenal.

“Twins.” Was the simple reply that could really answer a lot of questions.

Jack wasn’t even surprised. He totally understood why Hiccup didn’t want to tell them the truth.

They were like a newspaper, spreading information everywhere, yelling and shouting whenever something interesting happened. Jack knew that it wasn’t in bad faith, they were doing what friends did best – share the happiness with the others. Only… they didn’t know where to stop.

“Classic answer.” Jack said, trying to sound cheerful and happy.

“You know them.” Sinbad shrugged. “By the way, your boyfriend hogged them for this evening. Do you know how cool this party could be with them?”

“You mean how disastrous it could be? I think it’s a good thing they aren’t here. At least your house will still be here tomorrow.” Jack bent and took one beer.

He glanced around, searching for some bottle opener. Sinbad took the beer from his hand and opened it, first fishing out the keys from his pocket which he used to open it. The cap jumped into the air with a happy pop.

“Yeah, at least Marina won’t kill me tomorrow.” Sinbad said, giving the beer back.

“See, you’ve to look at the bright side.” Jack said, nudging Sinbad with his elbow and glancing at Aster to ask if he wanted beer.

Only to find that Bunny wasn’t standing next to him. Jack quickly looked around, trying to notice the gray mop of his tall friend’s hair only to see him disappear into the corridor. Jack lifted his hand in vain to maybe call him and ask where he was going, but Aster was too far away now.

“Wow, what happened with him?” Sinbad asked, taking one bottle and opening it in the same way as Jack’s one. “He acts grumpy. I mean grumpier than usual.”

“Bites me…” Jack murmured, furrowing his eyebrows.

If Sinbad also noticed it, then definitely it wasn’t his imagination now. And the problem reached dangerous level.

When it all started, why it all started, what was the first spark? Why and when did Jack miss so many important things? It couldn’t just happen overnight. This probably sprouted and grew inside Aster’s mind till it reached its peak. And now it started to be visible to everyone.

Jack felt like he failed his best-friend.

* * *

“Are you done?”

“No, of course not. Here you have another +5 to the monster. Just in case you were about to defeat it.” Astrid sang, happily putting the card down on the piles of cards already spread in front of Tuffnut.

The blond haired boy stared at the card, then looked at the ones he had in his palm and cursed.

“Someone else?” He glanced at the rest of the people in the circle.

Hiccup was out of options which could drown Tuffnut’s chances of winning in this round. But judging by the look on his face, what was put in front of him wasn’t really appealing. Maybe he would lose now and then Hiccup could still win in the next round.

Everyone shook their heads, staring intently at the results of the fight.

Tuffnut looked at everyone, judging and waiting for someone to put another thing in front of him.

Uh huh, this didn’t look good for everyone else.

“So, if no one is putting anything…” He murmured, touching the cards in his hand. “Then I’m making my doppelganger, which doubles all my points. Boom, I’m a winner!” Tuffnut shouted, literally throwing his ace card on the pile.

Damn him, Hiccup wanted to have it.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Snotlout shouted, putting his hand in front of himself while looking curiously through his cards. “This is not over!”

“Step down from your pedestal, Snot, because now I’m the king, baby!” Tuffnut yipped, jumping to his feet and throwing cards in the air.

Hiccup looked desperately at the set in his hands. Unfortunately, he got nothing. A glance to his side told him that Fishlegs was out of the moves too. Damn it, they shouldn’t waste their alliance on beating Astrid. But well, it was kind of worth it after seeing her face when she had fallen to first level.

Tuffnut started to dance, when everyone put their cards down with a groan.

“One of us would win in the next round.” Fishlegs scooted closer to Hiccup and glanced at his cards.

“Yeah.” Hiccup nodded, looking up at the blonde haired teen who was shaking his hips now way too close to Snotlout’s face.

Which resulted in a kick to the shin from the said boy and a loud yelp of pain after that.

“Sore loser!” Tuffnut murmured, but sat back down, massaging his leg.

“I just don’t like your butt anywhere near my face.” Snotlout grumbled.

“At least you will be getting something nice near your face!”

“What did you say!?”

And they were at this again, pushing and punching each other in a tangled mess on the floor.

Hiccup stole a glance at Astrid, but she only rolled her eyes at their behavior and turned to Ruffnut who surprisingly had her nose in her phone. Astrid moved to her and glanced above her arm, murmuring something into her ear. Ruffnut only shrugged in response.

Okay, what was happening there? The twins weren’t really into this _glancing-at-your phone-every-five-seconds-in-hopes-for-a-new-message_ thing. On the contrary (what really had surprised Hiccup when he had started to hang out with them much more) they were usually the type of people who didn’t glance at their phones… at all. But now, seriously, it looked like her hand and eyes were glued to it.

It only had happened in the past when there had been some drama on the internet and Ruffnut had wanted to stay updated in it. Kind of brutal, if you ask Hiccup. However now he had a feeling it was a little bit different. Ruffnut was more… secretive about it. Almost like she was writing with a boy…

Great Arrhenius…

“Hiccup, everything’s alright?” It was Fishlegs prodding his shoulder in hopes of some response.

But Hiccup was currently unable to give one, because wow… it was the first time something like this happened. Oh, that sounded kind of bad. Different wording. Hiccup never had seen Ruffnut really interested in someone – famous actors and singers not included of course. She had her brother and her friends, and she looked totally content with what she had. No crushes, no problems, no rosy cheeks when someone spoke or even glanced at her.

Guess not anymore.

But maybe Hiccup was totally wrong. Maybe she was just talking with an old friend?

Oh no, she blushed. Ruffnut Thorston blushed and then showed her phone to Astrid, who took it and read something from it. Astrid’s eyes widened, but then a soft smile appeared on her mouth as she gave the phone back. Ruffnut asked her something at what Astrid only shrugged.

“Hiccup!”

“Yes, I’m alive!” Hiccup jumped, almost spilling the beer standing next to his leg.

His sudden outburst although caught the attention of everyone – even Tuffnut and Snotlout who finally stopped fighting on the floor and smashing his precious cards.

“Dude, did you again watch some weird scientific document about aliens at night?” Ruffnut asked, rising her eyebrow.

“No.” Hiccup said, reaching and scratching the back of his neck. “I just got lost in my thoughts.”

Thoughts about Ruffnut of all people. And about Ruffnut’s… what exactly? He had only conjectures, a draft, but no hard evidence. Did he even want to have hard evidences?

This could be a huge step in her life, so of course Hiccup was interested in it. But who could that be? Hiccup didn’t know all twins’ friends, but it had to be someone new. Did they tell him about someone new they had met recently? He wasn’t sure.

Okay, no, stop it. This was getting him nowhere. It was her life, her decisions and her crush. Maybe it wasn’t even a boy!

Gladly everyone after his short outburst left him alone. Tuffnut and Snotlout stopped messing around on the floor and returned to moreover normal sitting positions. Fishlegs started to gather the cards after their game. He made two piles, taking care of putting the cards in correct stock. Astrid and Ruffnut still whispered something to each other with both their faces lightened by the phone’s screen.

Hiccup started to help Fishlegs.

“Don’t you think Ruff is acting a little bit… different today?” He asked, leaning close so that both boys not too far away wouldn’t hear them.

Yep, he simply couldn’t leave it.

Fishlegs glanced at him and passed him one pile.

“What do you mean?”

“You know… uhmm…” Hiccup was lost. Maybe it really was nothing in the end. But the sudden curiosity was eating him from the inside. Or maybe it was weird acid which was dissolving his organs? The second option didn’t sound too good. “She is weirdly obsessed with her phone today.”

Fishlegs looked up, just in time to see Ruffnut giggling at something on the device.

“Maybe…” The boy nodded, stocked the last pile and gave it to Hiccup. “So what is wrong with Ruffnut looking at her phone?”

Fishlegs didn’t get him. Maybe Hiccup really was overthinking it. It wasn’t his business-

But weren’t private love life of his friends kind of his business too, even if only a little?

Oh, gosh… great Edison, enlighten him! This line of thoughts had to be an error his brain had made. Nu-huh! This wasn’t his business, so he shouldn’t stick his nose in this mess.

“Hey, anybody hungry?” Tuffnut suddenly asked, looking at everyone.

“Sure. I can order pizza.” Astrid proposed, standing up from her pillow and stretching arms above her head. “What do you all want on it?”

“Meat!” Snotlout, Tuffnut and Ruffnut shouted in unison and then high fived each other happily.

Hiccup shook his head. Seriously.

“Whatever.” He said, packing Munchkin* up and pushing the box away. Maybe they would still play later, who knew? “Just don’t add pineapple on it, please.”

“Do you have something against pineapple?” Fishlegs asked, rising his eyebrow.

“No, I just don’t like it on pizza.”

Fishlegs suddenly looked like he was deadly offended by his words.

“Pineapple is good on pizza!”

“Who is talking otherwise?!” It was Tuffnut who turned from bickering/talking with Snotlout to Fishlegs with pure surprise (mixed with hatred) painted on his face.

Seriously? Pineapple? This was what caught his attention?

“Hiccup is!” Fishlegs pointed a finger at him, almost poking his eye out.

“Come on!” Hiccup threw his hands in the air, groaning loudly. “Are we seriously gonna start arguing over a fricking pineapple on pizza?”

“Yes!” Tuffnut grabbed the beer standing on the table behind him and chugged few big sips. Hiccup wouldn’t be surprised if he finished it all in this one go. “This is very important topic!”

The auburn haired boy rolled his eyes and crossed hands on his chest. Seriously, why did he even put up with these guys? Oh, yeah… friends.

Hiccup glanced to his side, hoping that maybe Astrid would help him by getting him out of here, but she was talking with Ruffnut, totally indifferent to the sudden storm happening around them. Maybe he should wave at them or cough really loud to get their attention?

“No, it’s not.” Hiccup finally sighed, pinching his nose bridge and lifting the glasses a little bit.

He never was a big fun of drinking alcohol, but now he kind of understood being drunk. Maybe this way he would be able to actually hold this conversation.

Hiccup reached for the glass behind his back and took few small sips. Yeah, he definitely preferred wine or liqueur. The bubbles were feeling just… off inside his mouth. But now he really needed to block his mind. Or maybe on the contrary, open it more for this conversation.

“Hiccup, pardon me, but pineapple on pizza is very important and good.”

“Uhm… I don’t like it too.” Snotlout suddenly whispered, hanging his head and glancing warily at the blond haired boy next to him.

That… that surprised Hiccup. That kind of surprised everyone as they stopped talking and just stared at Snotlout.

Tuffnut’s eyes were so big, like he just saw a living dinosaur in a top hat parading around Burgess.

“Bro, please don’t do that…” He mumbled, voice breaking in the middle of the sentence. He even sniffed at the end.

Snotlout stole another short glance to his side, fidgeting in place. Wow, Hiccup hadn’t seen him so uncomfortable since… since he wasn’t even sure since when. Even at their Christmas’ dinner Snotlout had been just mildly irritated. But now he was clearly uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry, I just don’t even like pineapple.” Wow, seriously, even his voice was low.

Hiccup rose his head to look at Astrid and Ruffnut who stopped their chantrt and now were also staring at the boys.

“How could you not tell me that!?” Tuffnut yelled. “I’ve been buying us Hawaiian pizzas for at least three years. I trusted you!”

“I know.” Snotlout made a very theatrical pose, where he threw his head to the side and put one hand in front of Tuffnut. “And I’m sorry, but I can’t eat it anymore!”

Just how much they had drunk this evening… erm night? Few bottles? Had they taken or drunk something before Hiccup and the rest got there?

Or maybe it was just typical of them.

“But why?”

“Because you always order it and somehow… I forgot to tell you?”

Hiccup couldn’t believe this was really happening. No, no, no. He had to go somewhere and don’t look at this situation.

He stood up and in the same time caught Astrid looking at him and pointing with her head to the door directing them to the kitchen. Yes! Finally!

Hiccup quickly jumped around opened games and cans of beer laying around and got to his friend. They both moved to the kitchen, away from the still arguing Snotlout and Tuffnut. Were they even arguing in the normal meaning of this word?

Astrid moved to the phone hanging on the wall and grabbed it.

“There should be a pizzeria’s leaflet somewhere on the table.”

Hiccup moved to the round table at which they had been sitting after the twins’ party. He grabbed the bowl with fruits and started to shuffle through it. He found the leaflet under bananas at the very bottom.

Astrid took it from him and quickly read through it.

“I assume Hawaiian pizza is not on the list anymore for them.” She murmured, glancing up at him with a small smile. “I just order the next pizza on the menu. If they will complain I can eat it all for them”

Hiccup shrugged, which meant he agreed to the plan.

In the meantime, when Astrid was making an order, he sat down and looked around. Surprisingly the kitchen was still clean. There was a pile of dishes in the sink, but comparing it to the state of it during the last party it was amazingly pristine. On the counter also stood a pile of unopened chips, cookies and breadsticks.

They made quite the reserves.

“I just ordered one with meat and paprika and the second only with vegetables. And no pineapple.” Astrid said, falling down on the chair next to Hiccup.

“Do you think they are still arguing over it?” Hiccup asked instead, taking the leaflet from her and glancing at it. The pizzeria wasn’t that far away, but they probably had a lot of orders on this very specific day, so they definitely had to wait longer than usual.

“Definitely.” Astrid chuckled. “So can we stay here for few more minutes?”

“I’m always up for it.” Hiccup added and after that they fell into comfortable silence for few minutes.

Hiccup read the whole leaflet and it kind of made him hungrier. Plus the alcohol didn’t help, it always made him more starved.

“Are we still going to see Tooth and the rest out in the Park?” Astrid suddenly inquired, looking at the window of the backdoor. Half of it was covered with snow, so there wasn’t much to see.

“I guess…” Hiccup hid the leaflet back in the bowl. “At least this was what we agreed on. I’ll send Jack a message few minutes before we will be going out.”

“Good.”

There was something off in the way Astrid had said it, but Hiccup couldn’t put his mind on what the difference was. He wasn’t sure if it was even a good or a bad one. It simply was just off. Or maybe it was only his brain being fuzzy again.

Or maybe deep inside she was still a little bit mad at the twins and Snotlout for fighting the other day?

“You come to really like Tooth?”

Astrid smiled under her nose.

“Yeah, she is amazing and we actually have a lot in common.”

“Oh…” Hiccup mumbled. “To be honest, I didn’t quite expect it.”

“Me neither.” Astrid quickly added. “But she is very fun to hang out and talk with.” Then she glanced at the door. “I guess the war already stopped.”

“Probably.”

They both stood up and slowly walked back to the living room.

Tuffnut and Snotlout weren’t fighting anymore which was a good sign. On the contrary, they were laughing about something, very loudly, with their arms threw on each other’s shoulders. They both had bottles of beer in their hands and when Hiccup and Astrid stepped inside they were toasting something.

Okay, so that war ended quite quickly. Hiccup was actually glad for it. Half of him expected to walk into messy living room with the boys throwing chips or fries at each other.

Ruffnut and Fishlegs were sitting next to each other, talking about something in a shushed tone. The girl’s phone was laying next to her hip. It was blinking, indicating new message, but for now she wasn’t picking it up.

Maybe it wasn’t really a guy.

* * *

_We’re going out in ten minutes =D._

_Meet you at the fountain |(^o^)/_

Jack smiled under his nose as he pocketed his phone. Now he only had to find his friends. From what Sinbad had told him many people were going out to see the fireworks, but not everyone was going to the park.

Aster was standing in the corridor, talking with their teammate.

“Hey Aster, we’re going to see Hiccup and the rest in ten minutes. See you at the front door?” Jack said, moving closer and patting his taller friend on the shoulder.

Bunny turned to him and smiled. It looked that his somehow grumpy mood subsided. Maybe not completely, but he definitely looked better now.

“Sure thing. Tooth is still in the kitchen.”

Jack nodded and moved in the direction of the said room, patting his teammate on the arm.

The rainbow haired girl indeed was in the kitchen, together with Marina, cleaning some plates and glasses.

“Hey Tooth. We’re going out to see Hiccup, Astrid and the rest in ten minutes. Are you still up?” He asked, leaning on the doorframe, but not really stepping inside.

The girl swished around and her colorful hair almost hit Marina right in the face. Jack snorted under his nose, but hid it by pretending to cough.

“Of course I do! Where are we meeting?” She put one plate on the dryer and grabbed another one to rinse it under the water.

“Near the front door.”

“Works for me.”

Jack sent her a smile and was just about to turn around, when he heard Marina speak.

“Oh look how happy he is about the idea of meeting his boyfriend.”

Jack turned around and cocked his eyebrow, seeing as Tooth giggled to her friend.

“Our love-sick Jack is so cute.” Tooth glanced at him and sent a wink. Seriously…

He sighed, but the fond smile and warm feeling inside his chest didn’t want to go away. It just stuck with him like glue. But that really made him look like some love-sick guy.

Even though it wasn’t… it wasn’t…

“I didn’t see you so giddy in a long time.” Marina added. “Ah, young love.”

Jack was thankful for the sarcastic remark, because he could roll his eyes and return to his normal behavior, even if only for a little.

“Because you’re so old.” He noted, crossing his arms.

“I’m older than you.”

“But not that old.” Jack rose his eyebrow, looking at Marina from top to the bottom. “And I thought that women preferred not to tell how old they were.”

Marina shook her head and with one hand brushed a lone dark lock behind her ear. The palm left a trail of foam on her skin.

“I can make an exception when I want to prove the point.”

“Like every woman.” Jack sighed and turned around, feeling that he wouldn’t be winning this fight anytime soon. He wasn’t even sure he could win it. “See ya later!”

With that he simply darted out of the kitchen, not really wanting to be dragged into another pointless argument. Some girls were simply beyond his mind comprehension. It definitely took him too long to understand Tooth – which actually resulted in giving up in this difficult task and just taking everything as it was given to him. Moody one day, happy another and trying to kill you even later? No problem. In the morning wearing gothic clothes, only to put sweet pink dress in the evening? Totally normal. He just had to accept it and the whole world suddenly became easier.

And didn’t get offended when she said something mean while she was on her period.

Jack stepped for a second into the living room to inform Sinbad that he would be out for a little bit. Then he simply moved to the front door, where he grabbed his jacket and put it on. In next few minutes Jack played with his phone for a little bit, waiting for his friends to get to him.

Aster was the first one and Tooth followed quickly after. The three of them went out into the cold weather of Burgess’ night.

There were tons of people outside, yelling loudly and preparing fireworks. Most of them were drunk, what Jack didn’t really approve. Alcohol and fire didn’t mix well in his opinion. It was a quick way to get easily hurt and land in a hospital for the night.

Tooth was chirping happily about something to Aster who was responding with shrugs and grumbles, but in a very soft tone, which meant he was in a happy mood. It was a good sign. Maybe he wasn’t a big fan of alcohol, but at least it looked like Bunny had fun.

And this was what was important.

* * *

The central part of the Park was a giant fountain, now turned off due to the freezing temperature outside. The cement monument was surrounded by a round plaza made from orange and brown tiles. During summer it was almost impossible to find a sitting place on benches encircling the square. Gladly, there was a giant field around it, filled with lush grass and trees, shading people from the bright sun.

During winter the Burgess Park was a little less popular, but even on sunny days kids often came here to make snowmen or snowballs fights.

But now almost the whole plaza was filled with people, some of them thickly covered in jackets and sweaters and some only wearing long sleeved shirts. The happy chatter was floating above the crowd, making it almost impossible to hear anything else.

Maybe finding Hiccup and the rest wouldn’t be so easy in the end. They did plan to meet here, but Jack didn’t know there would be so many people.

“Are you seeing anyone?” Tooth asked, staying close to Jack.

He was glad for that. This way they wouldn’t get lost in the overflowing crowd.

Bunny was easier to spot, so Jack didn’t worry that much about him. But his taller friend still was walking close to them.

“No.” Jack shook his head and turned to Aster. “How about you? Do you see them from up above?”

The gray haired teen snorted. Even he had to stand on his tiptoes to see clearly (or moderately clearly). His eyes followed the crowd from above the surface, but then he turned to them and shook his head.

“I don’t see them anywhere.” He said, confirming everyone’s suspicions.

They walked around the gathering for a minute or so, not diving in. There was a possibility of drowning if they would do that and Jack wasn’t keen on getting lost or disconnected from the rest of his friends.

“Maybe you should call Hiccup?” Aster proposed, when they stopped in the same place from before, still with no sign of the rest.

Good idea, why Jack didn’t think about it earlier? Maybe it would be a little hard to hear the other side responding, but it was better than nothing.

Jack put his hand in his pocket, just in time to feel someone jumping at him and putting in a headlock. The world swayed and he had to close his eyes for a second to comprehend what had really happened.

“Frost, my old man!” And his perfect combed hair was destroyed by hard ruffles. “We didn’t see you in ages.”

When Jack gladly and quickly freed himself from the grasp, he rose up and grinned at Tuffnut. Almost the whole gang was already here.

“More like a month or so!” He quickly pointed, but indeed even Jack missed the craziness of the famous twins.

Back when they were all in one school, Jack often had done pranks with the twins and Snotlout. It was always funnier to do them in a team of four, plus the planning and gathering of supplies were easier. But the most important now were memories they shared.

After the twins had finished the school, Jack had started to minimalize the amount of pranks. They weren’t so spectacular anymore and some people had even thought that Jack lost the gumption. Gladly, Jack quickly had taught everyone a lesson about who was the King of Pranksters in their school. Even detention had been worth it.

“Month is such a long time when you’re working.” Ruffnut accompanied his brother, putting an elbow on his shoulder and leaning on him. “Especially as you have to deal with ungrateful customers who don’t leave tips!”

Astrid stepped forward, crossing hands on her chest and throwing her braid on the back with a quick movement of her head.

“Are you speaking about us?” She asked, cocking her eyebrow.

“Yes!” Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout turned to her and shouted in unison.

Jack and Tooth snickered at that. Aster only shook his head with a fond, but very tiny smile on his lips.

“You eat for free at my house. Isn’t it enough?” Astrid quickly retorted.

“No, it’s mandatory friendship’s extras you get for free.” Tuffnut pointed out. “It doesn’t count as a tip.”

“But we’re eating at your restaurant, so you guys can earn more money?” Astrid said, but now more hesitantly.

“Our pay doesn’t depend on the amount of customers.” Ruffnut added, fighting back.

Astrid opened her mouth, closed it, then opened while furrowing her eyebrows and… shut it. At least they got a winner in this match.

Jack was almost one hundred percent sure the twins only teased them about tips for fun. He knew that the tips they got are used to pay for the destroyed plates and glasses, so that leave them technically with no payment from the tips’ jar.

Wait, Ruff, Tuff, Snotlout and Astrid were already here, so where were…

Oh, Hiccup and the blonde haired boy were only now walking up the stairs, talking with each other. The taller teen was leaning to Hiccup with his mouth covered by a  gloved hand. He definitely said something funny, because Hiccup threw his head back and snorted loudly.

Fuck. Everything was okay. Nothing changed in him. Jack was totally fine. Everything was cool… cool… very cool. Totally cool.

Hiccup turned to Jack. His eyes widened and then sparkled with warm recognition.

It wasn’t fine…

The smaller teen tugged on his friend’s jacket and they both jogged to the rest of the crew. The air coming from both of their mouths was forming a tiny, fluffy clouds. With every step they were getting closer and closer.

And… wait… Jack technically was dating Hiccup, so he kind of had to do something. But somehow now it was different. Earlier he had been just doing the first thing that had been popping into his mind. But now… what should he even do to not show that he changed inside?

It was okay, no one could read his mind anyway.

So when the auburn haired teen was close Jack just embraced Hiccup, lifted off the ground, made a swirl in the air and quickly put him down. Maybe it was kind of too fast, but he could always blame it on alcohol.

Hiccup only managed to wave his hand in the air, before he was placed down and looked back up at Jack with small, hesitant, yet kind of dizzy smile plastered to his face.

“It’s good to see you too.” He said.

“Same here.” Jack grinned back, feeling something in him rumbling. Then he reached down and grasped Hiccup’s palm.

Hiccup didn’t oppose. He probably by now predicted that Jack would do that. They had to act for a little bit more.

Fishlegs next to them cleared his throat, but not in the annoying way, more like he wanted to inform them that he was still there.

Hiccup jumped and slipped his hand away. There was a second of hesitation with eyes jumping from Jack to the boy, but in the end Hiccup moved to pat the teen on his back and push him forward.

“I’m sure you had seen him around the school, but now it’s time for proper introduction. Jack, this is Fishlegs.” Then he glanced at the blond haired boy. “Fishlegs, the annoying nuisance is Jack.”

Fishlegs snorted under his nose, glimpsing at Hiccup for a brief second to quickly return his focus on Jack. He showed Jack his hand quickly.

“Nice to finally meet you in person.”

Jack smiled at the boy and shook his hand. A firm grip, Jack didn’t expect it, but it was pretty welcomed.

“Me too. I heard a lot about you from Hiccup.” It was the truth. The smaller teen talked a lot about his nerdy friend, the only one who fully understood him and how much he missed his presence in Burgess and at school.

“You did?” Fishlegs looked genuinely surprised by this information. He glanced at Hiccup, who weirdly looked away quickly. Then something ran through his face, like an evil smirk, a spell which appeared and disappeared. “I heard a lot about you too.”

Jack didn’t know if Fishlegs meant it in the good or bad way. However there had to be some speck of truth, because Hiccup swished his head back at Fishlegs and groaned.

“Fish, stop it!”

Oh, this picked his curiosity. Maybe he should craftily ask Fishlegs about it later.

“Hey, socialize with the rest of us!” Tuffnut shouted to them.

Hiccup peeked from behind Jack at the rest and… oh, he had to notice Aster, because his eyes widened for a split second with rosy blush rising to his cheek.

Jack already lost this fight, even before participating in it.

Brush it away, it was nothing, he should be happy…

Tooth and Aster moved to the three of them and Hiccup quickly made a redo of introducing Fishlegs, but this time to different people.

Jack stepped away for the remaining time. He stood together with Astrid, Ruff, Tuff and Snotlout and they tried to get him into talking about best burgers in Burgess (even Jack had to snort at the weak pun). And he did participate, only… some part of him did. He answered when they asked him about things, but he more over was more focused on observing Hiccup – especially his face beaming up at Bunny when the latter said something to him. Jack saw as Hiccup’s emerald eyes followed every Aster’s movement, as he blushed more furiously when Aster said something definitely directly to him, as he quickly looked away and scratched the back of his neck when he tried to answer properly without stuttering.

It was so obvious, Jack wasn’t sure how he hadn’t seen it way before properly knowing Hiccup.

And half of Jack was endeared by the image of Hiccup blossoming into beautiful flower. It was sweet and amazing and the world suddenly seemed brighter.

But the other half was whispering something into his ear. Jack couldn’t understand particular words, it sounded more like some murmurs in foreign language than in his own, but it was making him edgy. To this point that when Tuffnut nudged him, Jack jumped into the air.

“Frost, loosen up. Your boyfriend will return to us soon.” The boy said, laughing loudly at the end and patting Jack on the back.

So it was so visible. His sneaking skills definitely missed some leveling up in the last time.

After some time Jack started to have a feeling that someone was observing him. He lifted his head to notice Astrid eyeing him, not like she usually had been doing, but with a hint of strangeness to her gaze. Like she had something on her mind which included Jack and she tried to decode it.

Jack kind of wanted to shiver under this gaze. To be honest, Astrid Hofferson sometimes scared him. He knew under layers of brutality, harshness and sarcasm, was a kind, nice lady who was warm to her friends, but… Jack wasn’t sure if he was exactly Astrid’s friend. He liked her as a person and he had a feeling it was reciprocated… but how much?

“Hiccup, Fish! Stop talking about nerdy stuff and come to us!” Ruffnut yelled, turning around to the small group standing few meters away from them.

Four heads turned to them, then glanced at each other and finally Fishlegs shrugged. In few second they moved to the rest of the crew with Hiccup walking unusual close to Aster. Or maybe it was Jack’s brain telling him things and bending the spacetime*.

Hiccup stopped next to Jack and glimpsed up at him with snug smile spreading on his lips.

Jack tried to reciprocate it as much as he could, but he had a feeling that it came out a little bit crooked.

Astrid was observing the whole short exchange between them. Jack saw her in the corner of his vision, he saw her furrowing her eyebrows and sucking a bottom lip. But she quickly turned around when Tooth stopped next to her and asked about something.

There were still few minutes till midnight and they stood in the small circle outside the crowd gathering near the fountain. And when the chatter of people started to get too loud they even stepped away, still being more over close but now able to speak more clearly with each other.

Jack participated a lot in the conversation, while making a lot of jokes and laughing at some situation the twins told them about. He felt happy and comfortable around them, even though he still couldn’t let his guard fully down.

Yet all this time he couldn’t stop himself from stealing a few (or a thousand) glimpses at Hiccup. It just happened. Whenever someone spoke Jack’s eyes somehow suddenly landed on the boy next to him to observe his reactions.

Hide it, hide it, hide it, sweep it under the carpet…

Jack could only hope no one noticed it, well no one beside Ruff, Tuff and Snotlout, because they were the only one… not let in on with the fake-dating contract. For them Jack could steal as many lovey-dovey glances as he wanted.

For the rest… not so much.

Maybe it was the alcohol in his veins, or the mood of the night, or the simple happiness blossoming and bubbling inside his stomach, but he couldn’t help himself this time.

Few times Hiccup shivered when particularly strong gust ran past them to disappear into the crowd. Well, the evening (or night) wasn’t that cold, but Jack knew Hiccup was a warm bun, working properly only when he was wrapped in at least one thick sweater. So for the smaller teen it had to be freezing outside.

Once or twice Jack found Astrid also looking at him, still with this strange look playing on her dimples. Jack couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but… it definitely concerned him. At some point.

Someone in the crowd cheered loudly, which was followed by other shouts coming from more and more people. The few popping sounds resonated in the air around them. Oh, the party was starting with the countdown getting closer and closer.

Tuffnut with Snotlout came to life with that sound.

“No worries, peasants!” Tuffnut yelled at what Astrid only snorted. “We are coming for the rescue!”

Snotlout gracefully put down the backpack he was holding and from the inside they took out two bottles of champagne.

Jack whistled loudly at this sight.

“Nice.” Ruffnut quickly turned to her sibling with excited eyes. She quickly hid the phone which was weirdly very often in her palm this night. Or maybe it was only Jack’s imagination.

“Don’t want to burst your bubble of happiness, but…” Astrid started. “… are we gonna drink from the same bottle? It’s kind of… uncomfortable to pass one bottle to nine people. It’s even uncomfortable to pass two bottle to nine people.”

But Tuffnut puffed out his chest, suddenly very proud of himself.

“No worries, my fair lady.” Definitely too much alcohol, but the Astrid’s eye’s roll was quite amusing. “We thought about everything.”

This time Hiccup also glanced at Jack, rising his eyebrow. Twins and planning? Even Jack knew it rarely happened.

So everyone was very surprised when Tuffnut took out a bag of plastic glasses and ripped it open with a very content, yet kind of childish smile dancing on his lips. He took out the first one and combined the top part with the support and gave it to Astrid.

“Here you go.” He said, bowing even.

Astrid snorted one more time, shaking her head, but took the glass.

“Touché. You impressed me this time.” She said and Jack never had seen Snotlout suddenly lightening up so hard than in this very moment.

Tuffnut gave everyone their own glass and then returned to his own place and together with Snotlout started to open the bottle. Few seconds later the loud pop told Jack that they succeeded.

“Gather up folks to taste the stars!” Tuffnut shouted happily, pouring the golden liquid into Astrid’s glass.

“Did you just quote Dom Pérignon*?” Aster asked with bewilderment sipping from his voice.

And of course, Hiccup immediately turned to the taller teen. Jack had a second, maybe even less, to spot the sweet sparks of excitement and comprehension materializing in his green orbs.

Another clench of his chest – like a cold embrace of metallic hands. Heh funny, hugs were supposed to be good.

Tuffnut tilted his head and almost poured the champagne on Tooth’s palms when he was turning to Aster.

“No, I was quoting _The Fault in Our Stars_ …” He said, blinking. “You know, this one dude from the restaurant?”

Tooth brushed the lone drop rolling on the side of the glass with her finger, which she then licked.

“I didn’t know you like romantic movies.” She said, wiping the hand on her coat.

Tuffnut scoffed playfully in response and moved to Jack and Hiccup.

“I don’t. My sorry excuse of a sister-“ Ruffnut waited no time in kicking him in the shin. Tuffnut howled painfully, but looked back at Tooth with painful smile. “…forced me to watch the movie.”

Jack put the glass near the bottle.

“But it wasn’t me who was crying at the end of the movie.” Ruffnut quickly commented.

Jack could sense the sweet revenge dripping from her voice. Ah, classic Ruffnut. Jack always admired her for being so blunt.

“It was sad, okay!?” Tuffnut turned to her. Gladly he lifted the bottle higher, so no alcohol spilled to the ground. “Someone in this family needs to have a softer heart!”

“Ja, ja, I know, I’m the bad twin.” Ruffnut threw the braid on her back, smirking at her brother, however the grin she now had was a little bit warmer.

The blonde haired boy returned to them and blinked when he noticed there wasn’t another glass in front of his eyes. He glanced at Hiccup standing next to Jack, who was staring at Fishlegs and Aster talking next to him. For someone else he could be simply enamored by their conversation, but Jack knew the truth. So did probably Astrid who was now also looking at the auburn haired teen.

Jack sighed, grabbed Hiccup’s wrist and positioned the glass (which Hiccup was holding) under the bottle so Tuffnut could work with it.

After Tuffnut finished, he moved to the two boys next to them.

Hiccup shuffled in his place, tilting the glass in his palm and not looking at Jack.

“Sorry…” He mumbled after a minute or so. His head twitched, like he wanted to take a look at Jack, but decided not to do it at the very last second. He was probably embarrassed for getting caught staring at Bunny.

“Don’t mention it.” Jack answered, even though he wasn’t totally sure of the true meaning of his words. This was terrible. He had to do something with his thoughts. They were getting out of control. “If you want I can leave you alone with Aster for some time…” Jack said, leaning closer to Hiccup’s ear, but checking first if no one could hear him.

The boy lifted his head quickly, like he was astonished by this proposition, but he also shook it.

“No need.” He murmured. Then he put a cocky smile on his lips.” Besides, you could get jealous for it.”

Hiccup didn’t know that he missed the goal only by an inch or so. Or maybe he didn’t miss it at all, Jack wasn’t so sure anymore now.

It definitely had to be alcohol in his veins, because normally he wouldn’t have this kind of thoughts, right? Right… But there was hesitation, a pause in the beating of his heart. Was it even possible for your heart to stop beating or for it to has a pause in its work? No, Jack wasn’t sure. Maybe he should ask Tooth about it, she was a fan of biology and human body.

“Aw you’re so thoughtful.” Jack nevertheless decided to prolong it. Play along, play along…

“Yes, yes I am, if you-“ Hiccup stopped midsentence, opened his mouth, raised the glass and… sneezed loudly after two seconds. The golden liquid swayed heavily in the glass, but gladly stayed inside. The boy sniffed when he lifted his face back at Jack. “… didn’t notice it by now.”

Jack shook his head, somehow feeling much warmer than few seconds ago.

“Here, hold this, you doofus.” Jack said, pushing his glass into Hiccup’s palm.

“What do yo-“

But also this time Hiccup didn’t finish his sentence as Jack swiftly took off his own jacket and threw it on his friend’s shoulder in one quick movement. He smiled fondly at the image in front of him. Well, to be honest his blue jacket somehow didn’t suit Hiccup that much (definitely green or red would be better), plus the size was kind of a little too big, but it didn’t really matter. It was supposed to warm Hiccup, not look good in terms of fashion.

Besides, Jack kind of liked it, no matter how wrong it looked to others.

Hiccup blinked up at him.

“But you’ll get cold like this.” He murmured, pointing with Jack’s glass to the teen.

Jack rose his eyebrow and got his alcohol back, stepping closer to Hiccup in this process.

“Nah, don’t worry. It was too warm to me anyway.” He said, smiling comfortingly at the smaller teen.

Hiccup didn’t look that convinced. There was a thin wrinkle on his nose, due to which his glasses rolled down, but he pushed them higher with his wrist. His eyes jumped to his side.

Oh, there was a dust of rosy color splattered on his cheeks.

“Thank you then.” He whispered, very quietly, but Jack heard him.

It was enough to warm his insides about a degree or two. Was this even possible?

Tuffnut returned to his spot beside Snotlout where he poured himself and his friend also a glass. Then he looked into the emerald bottle, shrugged and drank the rest of the liquid.

“Hey! Not fair!” Astrid shouted, glaring at him.

“I paid for it, so I can do whatever I want with it.” He stuck a tongue at her and put the bottle down. “Everyone ready?”

Most of them nodded at each other with smiles gracing everyone’s lips. There was already a big commotion in the crowd gathered around the fountain. It looked like the New Year was just around the corner.

A quick glimpse at his phone told Jack that indeed it was the truth.

“Now quick survey, what do you wish for in the upcoming year?!” Ruffnut suddenly waved her hand in front of herself, like she tried to make way.

“More money, less bitchy customers” Her brother immediately replied.

“For Astrid to finally acknowledge how great man I am.” Snotlout said, sending a wink at his friend.

Astrid gagged and stuck out her tongue at him. She didn’t look surprised by that comment, maybe only a little bit displeased.

“For Snotlout to finally find someone good for himself who isn’t me.” Astrid said, staring back at him, yet with a dose of fondness and truth ringing in her words.

Snotlout blinked, quite confused at that wish, but huh boy, he did smile back. Jack seriously was perplexed by the exchange, but then decided to shrug it off as something normal. In their small group it probably was.

“Tooth?” Astrid then turned to her colorful haired and always cheerful friend.

The girl tapped her pink lips with the finger of her free hand, staring up at the quite faint sky, lighted up by the thousands of street lights. Here and there someone fired pre-celebrating fireworks.

“I wish for everyone to smile more every day. Oh and for people to not push me around just because my hair is in different color.” She said with a grin adorning her face.

Jack internally winced at the last statement. Yeah, Tooth had told him about few bad situations.

“Nothing for yourself?” Tuffnut asked.

“Maybe for me to get into second stage of Biology Olympiad?” Tooth nodded more to herself than to anyone else, looking weirdly content with her wishes.

“Fair enough.” The taller teen said and jumped with his gaze at Jack. “And you better not wish for more snow! You know how hard it is to clear our car every morning?!”

Jack chuckled at that. Yeah, nickname Frost really did suit him. However unfortunately he didn’t have powers to change the weather, no matter how hard he wished to have those. Life would be so much easier with them.

“Oh you’re taking the word ‘fun’ from ‘winter’-” Jack started to be quickly interrupted by Hiccup butting into his sentence.

“Uhm, there is no ‘fun’ in word ‘winter’.” He quickly cleared it out, lifting his eyebrow high onto his forehead to this point it almost disappeared behind the material of the hat.

“Shush, hon, I just said it wrong.” Jack pointed. He did say it wrong, but he wasn’t even conscious of making this mistake. Did Hiccup was listening so intently to him or had he some kind of radar for such errors?

Come on, he was a little bit drunk, he could forget that.

“Oh, really?”

That small, ungrateful nerd. Jack felt an urge to kick him in the shin, only not too strong to not really hurt him that bad.

“Really!” Jack said, louder, like by using mightier tone he was confirming his real thoughts. After that he cleared his throat. “Now coming back to the topic, way before someone interru-“

“There isn’t even a letter ‘f’ in the word ‘winter’…”

Excuse me? How Hiccup dared to interrupt the powerful Jackson Overland twice in the last two minutes.

When Jack did glare back at his friend, Hiccup was looking up at him with weird playful tone hiding inside his shining orbs. Oh, what this alcohol was making with people?

But Hiccup needed to learn to not interrupt people when they were about to say their wish. That was very, very inappropriate and he should pay a price for it!

Jack lifted his hand and put it on Hiccup’s head. Hiccup only managed to blink at Jack, but his eyes were quickly covered by his hat, when Jack pushed it down, almost covering the nose in the process.

“Jack!” Came the loud whine as Hiccup desperately tried to put the hat back, but it was hard to do so while holding a glass full of champagne, having a gloved hands and being a little bit drunk.

When Jack’s very intelligent friend finally pushed the hat higher (making few of his strands stand in weird angles), Jack did the same thing once again. The very annoyed curse this time made everyone laugh – Aster included.

Hiccup huffed, growled and cursed, whispering menacingly Jack’s name over and over while still trying to get his vision back.

“Jack, I swear-”

Jack rolled his eyes and after a minute or so helped Hiccup put the hat back correctly. He only felt a tini-tiny little bit bad for doing it. But no one makes fun of Jackson Overland for the same thing twice. Hiccup should be grateful he only got away with the small tease.

Well, being someone boyfriend (even if fake) had to have its own perks, right?

“Yes, yes, here you go.” Jack said. There was a soft, kind and motherly tone at the end of his sentence. He couldn’t hold still and keep looking at some people when they were trying to solve their problems, no matter how minor they were. “Better?”

Hiccup didn’t answer him, only blew him a raspberry with very ablaze cheeks. Totally embarrassed. Or maybe a little bit hot from the struggles. Probably a sum of both.

Hiccup crossed his hands on the chest and turned his head away.

“Oh, don’t be mad. It’s bad to be in argument first minutes in the New Year.” Jack said, stepping in front of Hiccup and hoping to see his pissed face.

But his friend only hmphed loudly and glanced in the other direction.

So Jack tried from the other side, with the same result. Then from another and another and another, but Hiccup was still averting his gaze.

In the meantime Tuffnut questioned Fishlegs about his wish for the upcoming year and it looked like they got into heavy conversation about something.

“Hiccup.” Jack tried one more time, jumping at him, but also this time Hiccup was unnaturally quick to look away.

There was a second, maybe two of sudden fear that crawled its way into Jack’s heart, because seriously he would hate for someone to be mad at him on the very first day of New Year. And especially for Hiccup to be mad at him for something as stupid and childish as innocent prank. But the fear quickly subsided when he saw the traces of smirk and laughter appearing on Hiccup’s face whenever he glanced away.

That sneaky bastard was playing with him.

Who could have thought that always calm and serious Hiccup had a soul of a mean trickster? Definitely not Jack.

“So how about you, Aster?”

Oh, this one moment he could use, because Hiccup immediately looked up at the tall friend standing maybe a meter or so away from him. So nicely predictable.

Jack took his golden opportunity to stab Hiccup’s side with his hand which resulted in high pitched shriek and a jump in the air. The glass in Hiccup’s hand wavered to the side, spilling few droplets on its side.

Hiccup turned to him, furrowing his eyebrows.

“You’re unbelievable today.” He hissed, then he glanced at his glove and brushed it on Jack’s jacket he was currently wearing.

“Hey!”

“This is for spilling it.” Hiccup added with a triumphant smirk.

Jack had something more to say, but was stopped by Tuffnut’s yell of surprise.

“Come on, can’t you wish for something cool? Like…” Tuffnut rose his nose to the sky, furrowing eyebrows while thinking. “A skateboard or oculus rift or even better grades!?” Snotlout nudged him. “Oh, wait no, you are too smart. You don’t need better grades.”

Aster huffed and snorted, both in the same time.

“What is bad in wanting to have your very own microscope?”

“Dude, seriously? Hiccup would want something like that! He is a nerd! He probably would even name it, like this weird PMM-whatever figurine he has in his room.”

“Hey!” Hiccup shouted, making a step forward. “For first – it’s a PMMA*, and for second – it’s my first very own polymer I’ve made!”

“You made it in a shape of a cat and named it Toothless version 2.0.” Tuffnut pointed at him and then returned to stare at Aster. “See, that is a present for people like him!”

Jack snorted, which received him a shove to his side from Hiccup’s elbow.

He had no problems with imagining Hiccup doing that. But no one told him that Hiccup had childish side when he was making figurines from this… something they were talking about.

“Okay!” Aster lifted his hands, sighing and surrendering still both in the same time. “I want a cool microscope which also shoots laser. Better?”

Both Snotlout and Tuffnut grinned, glancing at each other first. Ruffnut rolled her eyes, but returned her focus on the phone she was currently holding.

“Definitely!” The twin said and then turned back to Jack and Hiccup. “You lovebirds! You got yours sweet, cuddly, something moment, but don’t think we forgot about you!”

“Wouldn’t dream about it.” Hiccup quickly said.

“I’ll make a wish for you and wish for a better sense of humor for you in the upcoming year.”

“Hey!”

“Ups, already made a wish for you, not it’s too late.” Tuffnut quickly lifted his face to look at Jack, standing next to the auburn haired boy. “Now it’s your turn.”

Hiccup opened his mouth few times, stunned by what his friend just said and did. Jack rarely could win their small bickering fights. Maybe he should learn from them this amazing ability. But knowing them it was probably the bald persistence which gave them victory against Hiccup’s mind and words’ games.

“I didn’t have time to even think about it.” Jack said, lifting his hand and scratching the back of his head.

“Then just tell the first thing that pops into your head!” Snotlout proposed, putting one arm on Tuffnut’s shoulder and leaning on him.

What was the first thing popping into his mind? Happiness. For his family and friends. He wished for his mother to finally come back. For his family to get out of debts. For Aster to tell Jack what was bugging him. For Tooth to not be afraid of being herself. For Heather to find peace in her life. For Hiccup…

For Hiccup to have a normal life without Dagur bugging him. For him to loosen up and enjoy life while not stressing over everything. For him to warm a little bit to people – both emotionally and physically.

For Hiccup to be with someone better than Jack.

His throat was blocked though and the only thing he was able to say was:

 “ _Half-Life 3._ ”

At what almost everyone burst in laughter, including Hiccup.

The sudden knot in his throat loosened up a tiny bit in the rhythm of his hand landing on his nape.

“Oh, I’m signing under your wish, Frost.” Tuffnut shouted, lifting his glass higher, toasting him.

“Me too.” Snotlout said, showing him a thumb-up.

“Me three!” Ruffnut chirped, rising her eyes form her phone. Her fingers although still moved and tapped a message. But to whom?

The almost inseparable trio high fived each other. The girl had to pocket her phone to do so, as her other hand was holding a glass.

Astrid cleared her throat, making a step forward.

“I don’t want to interrupt you but-“

And actually it was the crowd which interrupted her by shouting loudly:

“Ten!”

The sound of their voices definitely woke up few old people who had gone already to sleep.

Everyone turned to the fountain and looked up at the sky, yelling loudly following numbers. Definitely the loudest from them were Tuffnut, Snotlout and Ruffnut. But neither Astrid nor Fishlegs (which indeed surprised him) nor Jack were too far away with the volume of their voice. Then it was Tooth, who tried to shout, but wasn’t used to rising her voice. After that was Aster who was saying the numbers and not really yelling them. The last place was taken by Hiccup, who wasn’t even opening his mouth to take part in the celebration.

Jack hip checked the auburn haired boy.

“Count with us!” He shouted, leaning closer. “Put a smile on that grumpy face of yours!”

Hiccup lifted his head at Jack, and even though he really wanted to remain calm, the corners of his lips twitched upwards.

“But I am happy!” He responded, also rising his voice, but not enough to be audible, even at such close proximity.

“What!?”

“But I am happy!!” Hiccup now shouted, straight into Jack’s ear. How this didn’t really hurt him was a miracle.

“You don’t look like you are!” Jack replied, cocking his eyebrow.

“But it’s the truth!”

However Jack couldn’t talk more because the crowd went into full loud mode when the three last number were just around the corner.

The excitation, joy, glee, felicity was slipping into Jack’s body, filling it with energy. He always loved to be a part of something big, some kind of gathering of people focused and wishing for the good things. There definitely was hesitation and fear creeping somewhere at the back of their minds and brains, hiding behind trees, lurking like wild and hungry animals, but for one night… for just one night everyone could be filled with hope.

It made him warm inside.

And then everyone shouted in not really perfect unison the last and very first number.

“One!”

And the fireworks were also late, but it didn’t matter. What did were embarrassed laughter and true wishes of Happy New Year as people sipped on their drinks and turned to each other with grins adorning their faces.

So Jack did too. He turned to Hiccup without even missing a beat or even taking a sip of definitely delicious champagne waiting in the plastic glass.

But Hiccup wasn’t looking at him, but at Aster and Fishlegs who were definitely wishing each other an amazing New Year.

Jack rarely had those moments – the ones when you feel like the world turns gray and there is a pause, a rip in the flowing time. A second, maybe even less of floating in the space without having a higher meaning. A moment when suddenly everything feels like too much and too less both in the same time. This moment when the lightning strikes near your home and you’re terrified for a second that the next one will hit yours. The moment when you dive into the ocean and you get so far away from the surface that for a second you’re terrified of dying as your chest tighten, not being able to be released.

Jack rarely had those moments. It wasn’t also one of these dark moments when the world crashes down on you and you can’t take a proper breath for some time. It wasn’t this moment when you lose your sight with the heartbeat getting lost somewhere in the middle of trying to comprehend the disappearance of something. It wasn’t one of those really terrible moments when you’re afraid of future or even today.

But something inside of Jack rattled. There was a cold light between the grey clouds, or maybe a first small flood of the mind’s basement. There was a spark and a smoke of dying light on the match. There was a drop of life-giving rain, but too far away from the flower.

It all happened in this one short moment. Jack had a feeling he was looking at the back of Hiccup’s head for at least ten minutes, when in reality it wasn’t even five or so seconds.

But Hiccup turned back to Jack and there was a short spasm of pained look in his eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as he put a smile on his lips.

“Happy New Year, Jack.” He said in a happy tone.

But Jack knew Hiccup would prefer to talk with someone else.

Jack wasn’t this person who wanted to have first place in everything. He wasn’t this person focusing only on winning and being ahead of everyone. He never had felt an urge to try to get the gold medal.

“Happy New Year to you too, Hic.” Jack said too, grinning at his friend.

They made a toast, clinked each other plastic glasses and looked up at the sky, enjoying the colorful show being displayed on the dark canvas.

Now Jack wondered if he was even close to the podium of Hiccup’s heart.

The champagne tasted bitterly in his mouth.

* * *

“Argh, my head…”

“You tell me.” Tuffnut next to Hiccup replied, putting a bag of ice to his temple. In his other hand was a remote control, floating meaningless in the air as the teen didn’t switch the channel for the last five minutes.

Hiccup closed his eyelids, massaging his head and hoping that the pain would go away.

In comparison to Hiccup, the blonde haired teen looked almost refreshing. It was Hiccup who was a complaining, aching mess of limbs thrown onto the twins’ couch. But at least his stomach didn’t hurt. There was only a headache.

And this was the reason he preferred not to drink a lot.

“Do you want some more Aspirin?” Tuffnut asked, finally putting his hand down and glancing at him.

“No, I already took too much.” Four pills since waking up. And he didn’t know the limit, so he didn’t want to take more.

“Astrid and Fishlegs should be ready with breakfast soon, so maybe after it you can eat more pills.”

Yeah, Astrid alone in the kitchen was a disaster. Burned toasts and scrambled eggs were a daily basis. Gladly Fishlegs was with her. Maybe with him she wouldn’t burn their food while learning few good tricks in the kitchen.

Coming to this Fishlegs should talk with Jack about cooking, because Jack’s dishes were amazing. Perfectly seasoned and made. A heaven during eating. Just by thinking about them, Hiccup’s mouth got watery.

Yesterday, when the fireworks show had ended, they had talked a little bit more with each other and then around 1 am had gone to their respectful places. And it was amazing – seeing his friend talking freely with Jack’s close ones. Astrid and Tooth immediately had kicked right off, weirdly together with Tuffnut. And Fishlegs could talk about nerd stuff with Aster for what Hiccup was really glad. Fishlegs didn’t have that many friends, but he was such a sweet and nice guy who sought other people’s presence it sometimes pained Hiccup to see it. It had got worse when Fishlegs had moved away, as all of his friend had stayed here. So now, being able to see him so hyperactive and energetic while talking about differences in suspension and emulsion polymerization* in terms of durability of the material was astonishing and warming Hiccup inside.

That was a good night. Fishlegs and Aster even had exchanged phone numbers. For it Hiccup was maybe (only maybe) a little bit jealous (because, well, you know what…), but then Fishlegs had said that he didn’t mind sharing the information for a good price (maybe buying a game on Steam would work).

Yet even though everything looked so blissful, there was one thing different and simply off.

Only, Hiccup didn’t know if this was true or not, but he had a feeling there was something wrong with Jack. Like one moment he had been all happy – sunshine and rainbows, charged with positive energy – and then there had appeared fog on his façade. Maybe Jack had been tired, but… Hiccup was kind of lost. Something indeed must had happened in one second or so to rip Jack’s mood apart and Hiccup couldn’t put his mind on it. So now he had quite a kaleidoscope of weirdly acting people – including at the very first place Dagur, then Astrid and now Jack. Maybe he would even put on the list Ruffnut, but she wasn’t acting strange in that worrisome way, but more like weirded out way. Did it make any sense? Hiccup wasn’t sure.

“The food is here!” Came the loud and chirpy voice of Fishlegs entering the living room with two plates in his hand.

Hiccup cringed at the volume of the voice, but the delicious smell was good for repaying the sudden spark of pain in his head.

“Sweet!” Tuffnut jumped to his feet.

From the corner of the living room Tuffnut brought a coffee table and threw four cushions on the floor on which they had been sitting yesterday and playing. The cards from the _7 Wonders_ * were still there with Snotlout actually winning the game. Dang it, he practically had won by winning the wars only and building a Guild concerning green and red cards. Hiccup with his own green cards had been sitting next to him*, so Snotlout had won because of him.

Fishlegs put two plates with bacon, salad and fried eggs in front of Hiccup and Tuffnut. After few seconds Astrid emerged from the kitchen holding another two plates, keeping a very proud smile on her lips. They both then sat down with food in front of themselves.

“Thank you for the food!” Tuffnut loudly yelled, before digging up into the bacon, munching on it with delighted look on his face.

Hiccup took his own utensils and started to eat slowly, from time to time peeking up at the TV still going on.

The rest was more over talking. Hiccup was only partially listening to them, mostly because his head was filled with needles prickling his brain. Now he really missed those times when his head hadn’t hurt and he had taken it for granted. He knew the pain would subside with time or day, but now… now it was too much.

At least the food was great. Maybe it wasn’t Jack’s level, but he still enjoyed it. Or maybe he was so hungry he didn’t care what he was really eating.

“Ruffnut is takin really long.” Fishlegs suddenly said, putting the last piece of the bacon in his mouth.

Ruffnut had driven Snotlout’s home, because he didn’t look like he could walk for too many meters straight. Plus he kind of was seconds away from vomiting, so the girl offered to drive him home. And she did, like an hour ago. But Snotlout wasn’t living so far away, so she should be back home right now.

“I’m pretty sure, she stopped so she could flirt on her phone!” Tuffnut started, only to shout the last few words almost right into Hiccup’s ear.

“Tuff, fuck, calm down.” He hissed, covering his ears and glaring at his friend. Seriously.

“Oh, shit, sorry, forgot…” At least the blonde haired boy looked a little bit sorry for his outburst.

Fishlegs glanced at all of them, blinking at the end.

“Wait, am I missing something? About who are we actually talking about?” He asked, glancing last at Hiccup who shrugged, showing that he also had no idea.

But at least his yesterday’s suspicions were correct. Huff – and he thought he was starting to get crazy.

Astrid groaned and pushed her plate away. She leaned away and crossed her hands on her chest.

“You know this guy with whom she actually fought?”

And won, Hiccup added in his mind. No one messed with Ruffnut Thorston or her brother and came unscathed out of it.

“Well, I have a vague memory of him, but everything is a little bit blurred. What was his name again?”

“Eret.” Tuffnut mumbled, putting food in his mouth and then leaning on the couch and throwing his hands on it. “And they had exchanged numbers back at the hospital and are writing with each other almost non-stop since then.”

“Oh, I wondered why she was looking so often at her phone.” Hiccup added, staring at the TV.

Fishlegs coed sweetly.

“It’s almost cute!” He said looking at everyone and probably trying to find some person who also though the same way, but finding none. “What, am I the only person thinking that?”

“Yes.” Tuffnut immediately replied, now even skipping a beat.

“I don’t know.” Hiccup said, after a second though.

“I’m not sure about him.” Astrid murmured, leaning forward. She grabbed back her fork and started to play with the rest of her food on the plate. “I mean, I’m glad for her, but… I don’t know…”

“I trust no man who wanted to fight us.” Tuffnut said, now also looking at the TV together with Hiccup. “Even if we kicked his butt.”

“Yeah, that.” Astrid pointed at Tuffnut and then looked back at Fishlegs.

The teen frowned, focusing on his empty plate in front of himself for few seconds, before speaking.

“Maybe you’re right.” Then he put the last piece of salad in his mouth, swallowing it quickly. “But he apologized, right? He couldn’t be that bad.”

Tuffnut snorted, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Yeah, words actually do little help when you hurt someone first.” He said and somehow this was the end of the topic.

Astrid who opened her mouth, closed it and looked to her side. She grabbed the newspaper from a shop and started to flip through it very slowly. Fishlegs murmured some kind of agreement under his nose, gathered all plates and stood up. Tuffnut focused almost fiercely on the weather forecast actually being showed on the screen.

And Hiccup… Hiccup was a little bit baffled out by the whole situation. He could totally understood Tuffnut’s point of view, but Ruffnut was already an adult (strong one, to be more precise) and she could decide for herself. Besides, she looked absolutely happy while talking with this… Eret on the phone, so he couldn’t be that bad, right?

Maybe?

There was a loud banging sound when the doors suddenly swung open due to a kick and hit the opposite wall with Ruffnut marching inside.

“Guys I’m home!” She shouted.

Tuffnut, not even lifting a head, yelled back.

“How it went?”

Ruffnut took off her shoes and walked into the living room.

“Good, no incidents on the way there.” She said, slumping down on the pillow Fishlegs had occupied few minutes ago. “What is smelling so good?”

And it felt like Fishlegs just waited for this moment, because he stepped inside with another plate with still steaming food on it and put it in front of the girl.

“Breakfast.” He said, smiling and walking back to the kitchen to probably finish cleaning the dishes.

“Thanks, Fish!” Ruffnut smiled while taking out the keys and phone to put them on the table.

She grabbed the fork, but before she was able to fully dig in, her phone blinked and vibrated, announcing new message. Ruffnut glanced at it and then shrugged, pushing it away to eat.

At least food was still more important than responding.

* * *

Author’s note:

Dudes, sorry I didn’t notice that AO3 cut half of my replies to the previous chapter. So here are the ones that weren’t there:

SolNiveAngelo (Mogadorian_Wolf) – I didn’t know it :o! Thanks for mentioning it! <3

RokuTsubasa – Me too haha xDDDD””. But unfortunately I doubt it will happen in near future xD. Totally slow-build all the way!

zerberus42 – Yay! <3 Yeah, there is a lot fluff here, I think I need to pump up the volume on angst’s meter xDDD. And omg, you made me squeal like a little girl here D:! AND OMG show me all your fanart, send me ideas, I love all of it =DDD (you can always write to me on my Tumblr, address is in the AO3 profile!). You’re amazing, thank you <3!

Emily – there definitely will be more xD. At first I tried updating every month, but now I guess it turned into every two months xD. And to be honest when you commented I wanted to immediately reply that there should be new update this week, but like literally after this idea popped into my head my Uni just threw tons of work at me D:! And thank you, I’m flattered. I’m always so happy when I see some references! =D

And new replies =D:

Toffyy – I don’t know if I should be happy or not now haha xDD. And Hiccup’s night out was definitely a blast! I’m glad then, because I have a feeling Eret will also appear at some part!

Blitz_lili – I love writing hugs between Jack and Hiccup. They are so awkward! Totally adore it! To be honest, lately I love writing the interaction between Hiccup’s group. Definitely it is easier for me than writing the scenes with Jack’s gang xD. I feel like I’m making more mysteries than give answer, so I need to change that. And Dagur will appear soon! Thank you <3!

Zerberus42 – I can’t say much, but I can say there will be so emotional drama and some heartbreaks too xD! Omg, this made me actually so fricking happy, probably because I also read fanfictions outside my house xD. I now feel like we’re moving to angsty part, so brace yourself!! Thank you for waiting and I hope you enjoyed this chapter too! =D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Answers to comments are under the story, 'cause last time they were cut off!
> 
> Finally done! Like, gosh, I re-wrote this chapter (or some parts of it) two times. I’m still not satisfied with how it came out, but… ugh… Now it’s too late!
> 
> Nerdy facts (and some game’s facts):  
> *Munchkin – it’s a card game, where you go into dungeons and fight monster. You win basically when you reach level 10 (usually by defeating monster). Personally, I totally love it, ‘cause the cards are fricking funny. If you ever have a chance, go play it! =D  
> *The spacetime – in physics it is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single interwoven continuum.  
> *Dom Pérignon – he was a French Benedictine monk who made important contributions to the production and quality of champagne wine. Popular myths frequently, but erroneously, credit him with the invention of sparkling champagne, which didn't become the dominant style of Champagne until the mid-19th century.  
> *PMMA – poly(methyl methacrylate) – known as acrylic glass or even Plexiglas. But you can do different things from it, not only glass, but small figurines too xD.  
> *Suspension polymerization – is a heterogeneous radical polymerization process that uses mechanical agitation to mix a monomer or mixture of monomers in a liquid phase, such as water, while the monomers polymerize, forming spheres of polymer.  
> *Emulsion polymerization – is a type of radical polymerization that usually starts with an emulsion incorporating water, monomer, and surfactant. The most common type of emulsion polymerization is an oil-in-water emulsion, in which droplets of monomer (the oil) are emulsified (with surfactants) in a continuous phase of water.  
> *7 Wonders and Snotlout winning – this is board game I totally adore. Maybe even more than Munchkin, but I don’t know if more than Jungle Speed xD. It is played using three decks of cards featuring depictions of ancient civilizations, military conflicts and commercial activity. Hiccup built a lot of Science Building (green cards) and Snotlout built a Guild (purple cards) which gave him points for every Science Building around him, so you can say he won thanks to Hiccup.
> 
> Thank you Reader for being here with me! <3


	10. Dalton's law

**Dalton’s law** – in a mixture of non-reacting gases, the total pressure exerted is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of the individual gases.

 

“And remember to call us every day.”

“Every day?!”

“Okay, every two days.”

“Make that three!”

“Okay, every three days!” Tuffnut shouted, throwing his hands in the air and groaning loudly at the end. “Bargaining with you is just the worst!”

Fishlegs smiled proudly and pushed the backpack higher on his shoulders.

All of them were currently standing in a tight circle in the middle of the platform. They were not quite in a good mood while waiting for Fishlegs’ return train. There were quite a lot of people waiting for it too, many of them also huddled together to get warm in the cold and white world around them.

Hiccup buried his chin further into his scarf. He wasn’t good with goodbyes. He never knew what to say and it was often coming out more morbid than he intended it to be. But at least Tuffnut and Ruffnut weren’t good at those too, always getting teary and plaintive – even though they all knew that they would see each other again, they were still saddened and bummed out by the fact that they will only get to see each other again, only after a long time; a year? half a year? Or maybe only after few months, depending on the money and free time.

“Did you pack everything?” Astrid asked instead, butting into their conversation.

“I guess?...” Fishlegs replied, with doubt clearly vibrating in his voice.

“I’ll send it to you if I’ll find anything in my room that belongs to you.” Hiccup quickly added, waving his hand, but quickly putting it back under his armpit.

Fishlegs sent him a grateful smile and turned back.

Hiccup will definitely miss being with his best friend. These last few days had been filled with almost never ending amount of laughs, movies, scientific conversations, and simply fun. Well, Hiccup had lots of fun while spending time with other people, but there wasn’t a person who understood him more - in some specific parts - than Fishlegs.

He liked to be alone, but sometimes it was too much, even for him (yeah, seriously though, it really was). And it even kinda looked like Toothless would miss the guest too. But maybe only because Fishlegs had been giving the cat treats almost every hour.

There was a sudden commotion where people started to get up from their seats and gather their belongings under their arms. There were kisses and soft pecks on cheeks. There were hugs and tears, and loud voices of farewells and people wishing to their loved one’s - a good trip.

“I think it’s my cue.” Fishlegs said. Unfortunately, he was right as the train passed them in this very moment.

“Remember to write!” Tuffnut shouted, nudging at Fishlegs’ arm.

“Take care of yourself.” Ruffnut ruffled his hair.

“Don’t get killed!” Snotlout patted his shoulder, with the oh-so familiar (and a little bit evil) smirk that he always guns.

Astrid scoffed, but smiled warmly right after.

“Stay warm. And write to me when you’ll be up for some co-op!” Typical Astrid.

Hiccup didn’t really know what to add. All of his sentences were mingled in his head, dulled, and then simply evaporated, not leaving even a trace amount of the general, basic idea of what to say. See, this was what he was talking about!

“Write to me when you’ll get home, okay?” He finally said.

Fishlegs then initiated a group hug (in which Hiccup was forced to participate). Then the crowd which started to gather around doors stole Fishlegs away, who disappeared quickly in this mess.

Hiccup felt his stomach drop. He corrected the scarf around his neck, feeling some kind of valve closing inside his throat. Yes, goodbyes were definitely terrible - well, for him anyways.

They couldn’t see Fishlegs through any of the windows. Even when Ruffnut and Tuffnut screamed and shouted - which only resulted in them receiving a few glares being casted at their direction. He probably sat on the opposite side.

The train came to life a minute later, which was adjacently accompanied by a soft shushing sounds of closing doors. One tug of electricity, and then the machine moved smoothly on the rails, driving away from the platform and taking his friend with it and away from them.

The weird feeling inside Hiccup’s chest didn’t want to subside, and he knew that it would leave a residue inside of him for few more hours. They all stared in the direction where the blue train had disappeared, only to slowly turn around after a minute, then stepping down the escalator.

Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout were at the front, talking with each other, but more quiet than usual. They had work in few minutes, so when they got out of the railway station, the trio of doom quickly bid the two of them goodbyes, after which, they almost ran to the twin’s car to get to their restaurant on time.

Back when they first had told Hiccup, that they had work, he snorted at the information. Twins, Snotlout and work? It’s just didn’t add in Hiccup’s mind. They were crazy and unbelievable, so at first he wasn’t sure if they could really keep up with an actually job – getting up early, being nice to customers, not acting ridiculously during shifts. But they had surprised him, in a very nice way. And Hiccup, deep inside, was very proud of them. They were collecting money to go to College – another idea that totally shook Hiccup inside. But they stuck to the plan, putting every dollar they got from the payment on a special account.

People grow up. Even during times when you don’t expect them to.

And when Hiccup stared at the twins and Snotlout – as they waved their hands at them, as they got into the car with Ruffnut checking the phone one more time, only to start the engine and disappear into the gray line of similar cars – he felt like slowly, they were moving to some point in their lives where everything would change. Twins and Snotlout would go to College, probably a few cities away. Jack and his group was also about to end High School and even though they didn’t actually talk about it, Hiccup knew that all of them wanted to study somewhere.

It would leave only him and Astrid here. In Burgess. All alone.

This idea terrified him. But it was selfish, so he quickly hid his emotions under covers, blocked them and/or froze it in liquid nitrogen*. He didn’t want to think like that. They still had time together. Right?

But how long?

“Hey…” Astrid nudged Hiccup’s shoulder. Surprisingly, it was quite gentle, considering that it was Astrid. They were slowly moving to the outskirts of town. “Doing anything in particular today?”

Hiccup shook his head, getting rid of every last ounce of the bad thoughts which was overpowered him, just few a seconds ago.

“No, not really.” He answered, turning to her. “Why do you ask?”

And by the hesitant smile with hints of embarrassment precipitating in the form of a light blush on her cheeks, Hiccup immediately knew what she wanted from him.

“Because you know… tomorrow is school and…”

Hiccup groaned.

“You want me to help you with your homework, right?” He asked.

“Pretty please!” Astrid stopped and turned to him, while she clasped her hands together, bowing at the end. “I really need your help!”

Hiccup wasn’t really surprised. He maybe would be, if this wasn’t like the eighth time she had done this in their life. Besides, he didn’t really want to return to his empty house right now.

“Okay, but you owe me.” Which wasn’t the truth. Hiccup would do it for free, but he had to bargain a little, just for fun.

“New book?” Astrid asked, sinking into her scarf and raising her eyebrow.

Ah, the typical payment. Who could judge Hiccup? He was a person who liked to have a lot of books and to be allowed to read them whenever he felt like it.

“A hardcover copy, throw in a Toblerone and we have a deal.” Hiccup said confidently, rising his face and closing his eyes. He wanted to smugly push his glasses higher, but he only resulted in accidentally putting his finger in his eye. So… so much for that.

Astrid chuckled.

“You’re getting more expensive every year.” She said, which meant that she accepted the payment.

“We have to respect ourselves, our knowledge and time!” Hiccup said, pointing to the sky and puffing his chest out proudly. “Those aren’t cheap stuff!”

Astrid nudged his side, almost sending him into a giant pile of snow.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s test this knowledge of yours at my house.”

* * *

Astrid wasn’t a lazy person. She was a member of a basketball team and had good grades. Only she tended to… procrastinate a lot when there was too much free time. Weekends weren’t a problem, but when there was more than three free days… then it started to get fun (tricky!). The fun always ended in her doing homework on the last day. And, of course, with Hiccup helping her.

Gladly she was quickly catching on, with what Hiccup was explaining to her, so they didn’t spend too much time on homeworks. Only till the evening, and most of the time they had spent talking while writing down equations or listening to music while writing essays.

Astrid’s parents sent dinner to her room and chatted with Hiccup for a little bit. They were always very kind and nice to him, but acted totally like their daughter (or to be more appropriate, she was acting totally like them). Hiccup remembered well, how Astrid’s mother had patted him once on the back while laughing – and it was quite a painful memory.

And because tomorrow they had school, Astrid’s mother drove Hiccup home when they were finished. They weren’t living that far away, he could be at his doorsteps in ten minutes, but the woman insisted. So he packed himself in her car and in four minutes they were in front of his house. At least he didn’t have to freeze in the weather.

Hiccup quickly said hello to his father, gave food to Toothless who scolded him while meowing loudly and then finally returned to his room.

It felt so empty, and... hollow, without the additional mattress on the floor, without clothes and bags of chips scattered everywhere, and without the presence of his friend.

Hiccup exhaled... slowly, and threw his bag on his bed, observing as the quilt rose an inch in the air, then landing graciously down. He actually was so tired, that he could fall asleep right here, right now. Even though it was only 9 pm, he was quite tired and sleepy, because he hadn’t got much sleep last week. However there were still a few things that needed to be done.

With a loud sigh, Hiccup moved to his laptop, sat down and opened it with one swift motion, clicking the button. It was only when he wanted to put in his password, that he saw the bent paper laying on the keyboard.

What the heck?

He took the paper and slowly unfolded it, only to stare at the row of numbers written neatly in the middle. Hiccup didn’t recognize it, and he has quite good memory with numbers.

He glanced down at the much smaller writing in the corner of the page.

_“No need to thank me xP. Use wisely.”_

He knew this style of writing. A few hours ago, Hiccup even said goodbye to him at the platform.

But why did Fishlegs gave him some random phone number? Huh, weird.

And maybe it was sleep deprivation or tiredness or incognitive thinking, or the simple impossibility of such occurrence to happen, but he understood what he was holding a minute later.

He was holding Aster’s phone number! He had seen Fishlegs and Aster exchanging numbers during New Year Eve! Oh-my-gosh! Oh my gosh! Great Newton! Astonishing Skłodowska-Curie! He had the most beautiful row of numbers in his palms!

Feeling something boiling inside his stomach, Hiccup quickly stood up, but only to frantically jump and frolic on his bed, and bury his face into his pillows, then to not so nicely squeal inside of them. Yep, good that Astrid didn’t see it. She wouldn’t stop bringing it up! Not even for the next ten years!

But even he had to act like a love-sick… someone.

He quickly fished his phone out of his backpack and was just about to add a new contact when he saw that he had one new message.

Ah, yeah, from Jack.

The name didn’t kill the sudden exothermic reaction inside his stomach, but it made him regain some of his normal ways of thinking. He shouldn’t act head over heels just for having one number…

Yeah, honestly though, he shouldn’t.

 _‘But it was Aster’s number!’_ – one part of Hiccup mumbled excitedly.

 _‘So what? It’s not like you are going to write to him’_ – said the other Hiccup inside his brain, nonchalantly checking his fingernails.

Unfortunately, he had to agree with the more realistic one by sighing loudly. Well yeah, he couldn’t imagine himself writing to Aster. Yeah, he really couldn’t fathom such a... blissful scenario. How should he even start? ‘ _Hey! I got your number from Fishlegs. What’s up?’_ It sounded normal and casual, but ugh!!… it was just off! He couldn’t simply write to a person with whom he rarely talks! Aster would definitely immediately understand what was going on in Hiccup’s brain!

 _‘Or maybe you could!’_ – shouted the first Hiccup, puffing out his cheeks and stomping loudly, trying to stand tall on the ground.

Heh, unlikely.

But maybe… Just maybe…

He glanced on his screen, at still unopened message from Jack. Would it be bad if Hiccup started talking with Aster? Hiccup, of course, approved the idea of being free to talk with whomever you wanted in a relationship, but… argh…

However even Jack had once proposed helping him with Aster, so... there was no way Jack would get angry at Hiccup for that. Right? Right… Right!?

This was all too complicated – couldn’t there be simpler options – yes or no, two positions of a switch? Apparently not. Hehh, as usual…

Hiccup glanced at the paper now laying on the pillow, a little bit crumpled, probably due to his sudden outburst of joy, happiness, then sadness on his bed.

It wouldn’t hurt anyone if he wrote it on his phone? Right? It can’t hurt anyone…

And so Hiccup thought.

Hiccup reached and grabbed the paper, smoothening and caressing the edges and reading the row of numbers one more time. -Ahh, ohh Hiccup. He opened the correct tab and started to enter them in, one by one. He re-checked if he entered them correctly, five times more, and only then, he clicked the ‘OK’ button at the very bottom.

_Contact saved_

Hiccup exhaled loudly, releasing the air that he didn’t know, he was holding for way too long, inside his now burning lungs.

He did it. He saved the number on his phone. Yay!...

Giggling under his nose, Hiccup opened Jack’s tab and slowly typed the message. He had to correct it at least three times because his fingers were shaking from the excitement still running through his veins.

Maybe it wasn’t much, but it was enough for Hiccup, to make him feel... all whole again.

* * *

Coming back to school was kind of good for Hiccup. He could return to his normal routine, consisting of waking up, going to school, doing homework and few simple jobs for other additional labs. He really liked when he had everything planned out. It gave him a good feeling of control over his life, no matter how small his power actually was.

And to be honest, he missed his additional labs – putting on his dirty, stained, now gray coat and mixing ingredients for small projects. The familiar smell of chemicals, which at the beginning had been irritating, now he welcomed with a sigh. Same old good things.

New Year started but everything was still the same. The same… for two weeks…

Hiccup sighed, as he yet gathered another fraction from the chromatography column. It was the seventeenth one and he had a feeling he would get at least a dozen more today. Every bottle was marked and was waiting in a box for further analysis.

The rest of the people from Chemistry Club already had left, leaving only Hiccup and another girl – a freshman, sitting in the corner, totally enamored by the rotary evaporator she was currently using.

Hiccup had time for himself. Even the teacher hid in his office, leaving only the two of them alone in the laboratory. Hiccup didn’t mind nor was surprised by it. It happened a lot actually.

Everything was the same as before the holidays. The small group consisting of him, Astrid, Jack, Tooth and Aster still hung out a lot around the school, but he couldn’t brush away the feeling that something changed. Some small particle – an impurity – found its way in the chemical bound which they had formed.

Because maybe… maybe it was only his imagination, but Hiccup had a feeling that Jack was moving away from him. It was visible in normal things they did. When they were standing together in the corridor, Jack was a little bit farther away than usual, he wasn’t messaging Hiccup as much as he used to and sometimes he even excused himself to go somewhere when they were going to a classroom in the same wing.

Maybe Hiccup wasn’t a genius in terms of relationships, but at least he had a very cunning eye. And this wasn’t normal.

He would lie, if he said that he hadn’t enjoyed these short two minutes of walking beside Aster to the classroom when Jack had disappeared somewhere yet again. He did. And it sort of felt terrible. Hiccup did nothing wrong, yet it still felt… wrong in all places.

He sighed, rolling the phone in his hand and observing the liquid dripping into the flask. One drop, two drops, three drops, he had at least five more minutes of free time.

He waited for a response from Jack, but it wasn’t coming for half an hour now, so he kind of gave up. Maybe the teen was simply busy. Maybe he was doing something important like homework (unlikely, but it was a possibility). Maybe he was spending time with his family. Maybe he simply was ignoring Hiccup…

This thought wasn’t very appealing. Besides, it was un-Jack-like to ignore someone.

Then what was happening?

Hiccup groaned and crossed his hands on the table in front of him, resting his head on them.

What was happening with his friends lately? Astrid and her bursting and yelling at twins, then Ruffnut talking with Eret and now Jack and his flowing away behavior. Did Hiccup just step into alternative universe or what?

No, that was stupid. It was just life. And life wasn’t constant. It was a weird function, with a lot of inflection’s points, sometimes flowing above the x-axis and sometimes below. And it looked like Hiccup was now on the drop of the line. Just how long until it’ll be going up again?

Hiccup twirled the phone in his hand. He looked up and, after waiting one more minute, collected another fraction. He labeled it with number eighteen and put with the rest of them.

Does he really have to wait for the function to turn around? Can’t he do something with it? Jumping in time to the future was, of course, impossible, but maybe he can affect the present somehow? Only how…

Hiccup wasn’t very good at dealing with people, so asking straightforward about the problem wasn’t really his thing. Plus he kind of had a feeling Jack wouldn’t even say him the truth. He would probably brush it off as something unimportant and ask about Hiccup’s day. It irritated the auburn haired teen to no end, but he also had his own quirks, so he more over understood it.

So maybe he could get to the point from the opposite side, like not even from Jack’s side? Even though Jack was a very social person, he didn’t open so easily to people around him. But Hiccup knew some people who were very close to Jack.

Aster and Tooth.

And Hiccup indeed had Aster’s number. It was there, in his contact list, taunting him to write. But even two weeks after the New Year. Hiccup still didn’t find the courage to do so.

So Tooth was it. However Hiccup didn’t have her phone number. They weren’t even friends on Facebook! But he knew someone who could have her number. Astrid. She definitely had her number…

This seemed like a good plan. Tooth could help him.

Drip, drip, drip…

Nodding to himself, Hiccup opened a message window and wrote a quick, simple:

_Hey, weird question. Do you maybe have Tooth’s phone number? D:_

Yeah, easy.

Hiccup opened his contact list. Oh, here she was, almost at the very top. Man, his contact list was very, very short.

“Uhm, Hiccup?

He snapped his head up, turning around to the freshman who was also in the laboratory beside him. His finger floated above the contact’s name.

“Yes?” He asked.

The girl glanced warily at the column in front of him.

“I think you need to change your receiver like… right now.” She pointed with her head at the equipment.

Hiccup turned around and yelped. There was already a transparent poodle on the tile under the receiver. Oh, no, no, no, no!

He threw his phone somewhere on the desk, accidentally brushing the screen, but he didn’t care at this point. His precious nineteenth fraction! Almost in the blink of an eye, Hiccup swapped the overflowing receiver with an empty one. Using paper towels he started to clean the outside surface of the gloss flask.

The poodle on the table wasn’t gladly big. Three or maybe four centimeters in width and length. Now he could only hope there wasn’t some majorly important substances there. Then this few hours would all be for nothing.

“Great…” Hiccup murmured to himself, throwing the wet paper to the special bin made for solid wastes.

After that he wrote a smudgy nineteen on the flask and put it away with the others. The crooked writing stood out, almost taunting and laughing at him for missing the point of swiping the receivers.

The sight left his lips. He wanted to hit his forehead on the table, but knew better. There were probably tons of weird shits spilled on the surface. Just his accident from few seconds ago was a confirmation of this theory. So yeah, no head banging on the surface, even if he really wanted to.

His eyes landed on his phone, so hazardously thrown away in the split second of panic attack. He bit his lip, reaching for the device and hoping that the screen wasn’t cracked. The last thing he needed from the New Year was new phone.

The screen gladly wasn’t broken.

Hiccup brushed his finger on the screen to finish writing a message to Astrid only to freeze midstep.

The message was already sent. But it wasn’t send to Astrid, but to a person who was above her in the contact list.

Hiccup cursed his luck in the rhythm of his heart jumping to his throat.

He sent the message to Aster! Aster of all people! Why did he save his stupid phone number!? Why the heck did he write it down with Aster’s real name!? Why was he above Astrid in the contact list!? Why did Aster name start with an A!? Couldn’t it start with any other letter!? Maybe E!? E was a good letter too! So, why, why A?!

Now Hiccup really felt like banging his head on the table. On the second though even licking the surface seemed now like a good idea.

Why, why, why!? Why him! Why couldn’t he accidentally send it to someone else!? Someone else with the name starting also with A? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Dumb. Fool. Really, he was done, kaput!

Was there some way to delete an already sent message?

Hiccup jumped in his chair when his phone vibrated, announcing new message.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…

No, Hiccup got it. He can simply explain to Aster that it was a mistake and they could totally forget about it. Right? Right. Right, right, fuck, right…

It was okay, he was okay, there was nothing to worry about. He just didn’t accidentally send a message to his crush and he replied. Yup, totally normal, nothing to freak about.

Oh, the receiver was almost full.

With shaking palms Hiccup put another flask on the small platform and wrote a twenty on the previous one. The even more crooked number now seriously mocked his ability to function in such stressful situations. But come on, how can he be not stressed when his crush just answered his mistake!?

Okay, Hiccup, got it. He had to deal with it!

His eyes landed warily on the phone he had discarded when he decided that he should change the receiver.

Taking a deep breath, he took the phone back, unlocked the screen and then clicked the unopened message, closing his eyes in the process.

No, he got it. It was going to be fine.

Slowly, he lifted his one eyelid to stare at the message.

_Who are you? I don’t have your number saved._

Oh, oh… that could also happen.

Hiccup felt something heavy forming inside his lungs and stomach. Okay, he got it. He could totally leave it and not answer Aster. But then Bunny could ask Jack if he knew the number and Jack definitely knew the number! So in the end Aster could find out the truth…

No, Hiccup was almost an adult, so he needed to act like an adult. There was nothing wrong in accidentally writing to your crush.

Slowly, but with loudly beating heart, Hiccup tapped his response, autocorrecting few words in the process.

_Sorry, Hiccup here. I was supposed to message_

_Astrid, but accidentally send it to you D: ._

Was emoticon good at the end or will Aster think that Hiccup was too childish and wasn’t taking things seriously? But the teen had made joke about microscopes and lasers back during the New Year’s Eve, so maybe not?

Okay, no, that didn’t matter.

Hiccup closed his eyes and clicked send.

That wasn’t so bad.

He put the phone away, screen down and turned around to his chromatography column. He was seconds away from getting another fraction. He flicked his wrist to look at his watch. Late, way too late.

The girl behind him ended her experiment and now was gathering the dishes to clean them in the sink. When the soft hum of the rotary evaporator disappeared, it sounded unnaturally quiet in the laboratory. It didn’t really help soothe Hiccup’s wrecked mind.

He busied himself with changing the receiver and signing it. Unfortunately, he almost spilled the insides when he heard his phone vibrating.

Hiccup sat back down and reached for his phone.

One, two, three and… he unlocked the screen to look at the message.

_Oh, no need to apologize. Here is Tooth’s number - >_

And under it was a line of numbers.

Okay, so now Hiccup actually didn’t need to message Astrid to ask her for the number. He saved it with shaking hands.

Should he thank Aster somehow? He did send him the number, even though he didn’t have too. Maybe?

_Thanks =D._

Good enough. Another message was send.

Wow, Hiccup was on a roll today. Astrid would be proud of him. Jack would be proud of him! He managed to send two messages to his crush!

Feeling content with himself, Hiccup put his phone away.

The freshman finished cleaning her apparatus, flasks and beakers and now was hiding it all in her locker. After that she closed it, gathered her things and moved to the door. Before exiting, she turned around and waved her hand at Hiccup.

He replied with a simple ‘see you later’.

Now he was left alone in the laboratory (not counting the teacher in his office). It kind of sucked, especially as it was already dark outside.

Hiccup sighed and leaned on his chair.

His phone vibrated.

Oh, did Jack message him back? Finally! He was waiting for almost an hour now. Jack rarely made such long breaks between responses.

But it wasn’t Jack the one who messaged him. It was Aster.

What, what, what!? Hiccup didn’t expect him to reply to his last one! Hiccup thanked him already, so that was the end of the conversation, right? Right! But Aster answered him! Did it mean he wanted to talk more?

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, he felt like fainting any second now.

_No problem. Mind me asking what do you need it for?_

Hiccup didn’t definitely mind Aster prolonging their small talks, that was for sure.

But can Hiccup tell him the truth? If he told him that he needed the number to ask Tooth about Jack wouldn’t it be weird? Aster and Jack were best friends too. There definitely were some things only Aster and Jack knew, but the same could be said about Jack’s and Tooth’s friendship.

What to do, what to do?

Hiccup could simply say that he wanted to ask Tooth about some biology question, but that would be lying and he hated it. Yet it was so easy to write it. The idea was tempting him, whispering sweet promises of not being embarrassed into his ear. Just few taps and it all would be done.

But Hiccup didn’t want it.

_I just wanted to ask her about Jack :)._

Hiccup’s finger hovered above the send button. Wouldn’t his message inquire that Aster wasn’t appropriate person to answer his questions? A little bit? Would even Aster think so hard about Hiccup’s messages?

_But maybe you can answer some of my questions?_

After another fraction – tagged and put away – there was a reply.

_Sure, fire away._

_Don’t you think he is acting weird lately?_

_Weird how?_

_Like, I don’t know… Like his mood is off?_

And that he is moving further and further away from Hiccup? Every day he is one step away. He is still there, next to Hiccup, pretending to be together, but there appeared a transparent wall, some kind of barricade between them.

_No, I don’t think so…_

_Oh, okay._

Or maybe Hiccup was just paranoid. Astrid always had been telling him he was overthinking things. Maybe now it was the case too.

Yet, he couldn’t brush that feeling away, like some unwanted residue on the flask that didn’t want to get cleaned away. He brushed and brushed, but it was still there, telling him that he did something wrong.

But what?

_But if this makes you feel better_

_I will look out for him now._

_You’ll do it? Thanks =D!_

_No problem._

And when Hiccup thought this was the end of the conversation, Aster messaged him again.

* * *

Jack sighed as he looked up at the dark sky above their heads. He rested his forehead on the window of Aster’s car and observed the passing clouds.

To be honest, the beginning of the New Year wasn’t that great. Well returning to school wasn’t great at all, but the teachers decided to hit him at the back of his head with a shovel. Metaphorically, of course. But every one of them reminded them of the inevitable. The final test, at the very end of the year. The hardest test they needed to face.

Jack wasn’t looking forward to the future that much right now.

And even though he didn’t mind some of the subjects, like Geography, English or even History, there were few terrible and mortifying ones. Like Math. Definitely Math. And of course, Pitch couldn’t help himself and not point out the shortcomings Jack had in this class.

“Knowledge of one topic isn’t enough, mister Overland, to pass this test.” Was what Professor Black had told especially him, when he had moved to the topic of the end of the semester.

Jack was conscious of this fact. He knew he had to start learning hard for this subject. But he couldn’t stop the dark thoughts from forming in his head.

Lately, he couldn’t really find the strength inside of him to brush them away. He still managed to forget about them for some time, but when the short moment of felicity was gone, so was his mood, because those shadows returned and hit him right in his chest.

Jack felt terrible and didn’t know what to do to feel better.

Even now, spending time with his close friends wasn’t really helping him. It wasn’t making things worse per se, but it didn’t stop the leak of the dark thoughts into his head.

When he was alone with Tooth it was different. Those were the only short moments of good ol’ optimism to rule over his mind once again. But when he was alone with Aster, or the three of them, it was distinctive. Even though Jack didn’t want to, somehow he found himself acting a little bit different in Aster’s presence. It was terrible and he hated it, but couldn’t prevent nor stop it.

He felt like he was betrayed and was betraying someone both in the same time. Terrible combination.

Jack stared at the street they passed in their small journey back to their homes. Sometimes he really preferred to walk home, feel the cold wind on his cheeks which allowed him to think straight for few moments, but no can do. He always drove back home with Aster when he had nothing else planned.

Ditching out now would be more suspicious even and Jack didn’t want to lie to his friend.

“Hey, wanna grab something to eat?” Aster suddenly asked, clearing his throat before speaking.

Awkward. Even the atmosphere between them was. Jack really wished Tooth was with them, but no, she had her Biology Club at school.

“I’m not really in the mood.” Jack answered truthfully, lifting his face from the window.

“I can see.” Aster noted, glancing at him for only a short split second, before returning his focus on the road. Another cough came from his mouth. “Something happened? You seem… down lately…”

Fuck, and Jack tried so hard to act normal when he was with Bunny. But guess he failed this task. And so much more.

He sighed and trailed some pattern on the window.

“I’m just stressed over exams… You saw how Pitch reminded me today of my exclusive lack of knowledge in this field and you know how he had freakish amazing talent in ruining your mood.”

“That’s true.” Aster answered and changed the gear.

Jack spoke the truth or at least some small part of it. The rest he preferred to keep for himself. It was better if no one knew about it. Especially Aster.

Aster’s phone suddenly vibrated and Jack saw as his palm twitched in sudden urge to check it. Heh, weird. Bunny rarely was quick to answer. To be honest, he sometimes had been forgetting about responding. But not now…

Jack wondered who was writing to his friend. Only a little bit.

That reminded him though that he still didn’t answer Hiccup’s last messages. Back during the old year, he would have done it immediately after receiving it, but now, whenever he saw the name on his screen, he also saw the very first image of the New Year – the back of Hiccup’s head while he was looking at someone else.

Jack knew it was stupid. It was terrible, but the image, a sudden spark of colors, a memory still so alive in his brain was making his gut twirl and clench in the uncomfortable way.

The fact that it was also twisting in this very nice, warm way wasn’t helping him much either. It actually made him a little bit sick. So he prolonged the pauses between the messages.

He got too close and then got burned in the end. So now it was better to remain further away from the fire, when there was someone else there who could take care of it, more professionally than Jack.

But being so close was amazing – it was making him feel warm, alive and simply happy. The urge to step closer was there, at the back of his mind, whispering sweet promises behind his ear. It was tempting Jack. He wanted it and not, both in the same time, when the fire was leaning to the other side. Away was better. Better for him, for Hiccup, for Aster.

For everyone.

 _Was it really?_ – whispered a soft, kind and very quiet voice behind his left ear.

Yes, yes it was. Jack had to believe it.

The voice said nothing more.

“We’re here.” Aster said, stopping near the pavement.

And indeed, Jack’s house was just few meters away from the car. The light from the living room window was sipping onto the white snow in front of it. So someone was home.

“Thanks.” Jack said and gathered his backpack from the floor.

He threw it on his back, while making a step outside, but stopped due to the voice behind him.

“Jack?”

He stopped, half of him outside the car and half still inside. However he somehow managed to turn around and look at his friend with questioning look.

“Hmm?”

Aster opened his mouth multiple times in the rhythm of his fingers drumming on the steering wheel. The voice which finally left his mouth was quiet.

“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

No, Jack couldn’t. He knew he couldn’t. And the lone idea that he couldn’t was making everything far more worse.

“I’m okay.” Jack said instead, trying to put a reassuring smile on his lips. Come on, he was amazing at smiling, everyone had told him so! So why smiling lately felt so constrainedly? “Really, you have nothing to worry about.” He added after a while.

Aster didn’t look convinced. He furrowed his eyebrows with his thumb brushing the fake leather.

“If you say so…” He finally said.

Jack shook his head, still hoping that the smile was on his lips.

“Really, I’m okay. Thank you for the lift.” With this Jack finally got out. “See you tomorrow?”

Aster nodded with a small twitch of his lips, that didn’t really reach his eyes.

“Yeah, see ya later.”

And with that Jack shut the door and moved to the front door. Bunny turned on the car and drove away, but Jack had a weird sensation on his back that his friend was observing him.

Inside the house he quickly took off his shoes and hung his blouse and jacket on the hook with a sour look returning to his face. It was dark in the corridor, so he didn’t have to pretend and smile. He passed through the entrance to the living room where he welcomed Emma with a wave.

“When will be dinner?” She asked, sucking on a lollipop and tearing her gaze away from the TV.

Jack frowned at the sweet in her mouth, but couldn’t do much about it.

“I’ll start it after unpacking, no worries kiddo.” He answered truthfully.

Emma nodded and returned to her cartoon.

Jack moved to the stairs which he climbed up and then moved to his quiet room. He threw his backpack on the bed hazily. He moved to his desk and started to take out things from his pockets. Old paper from a gum, some receipt, few cents, wallet and his phone.

Ah, yeah, answering.

Jack really didn’t want to do that. He knew what would happen when he would unlock the screen. He knew it too well. It happened every time he had done it.

But even Aster could see that he was acting differently. So perceptive Hiccup definitely would be suspicious, if he found abnormality in Jack’s responding time. If he didn’t concluded it by now, that was.

Jack sat on his chair and unlocked the screen. The name immediately caught his attention. Then there was sudden burst of happiness inside his stomach, which was quickly killed by the image appearing in front of his eyes, leaving only _something_ inside of him.

_You don’t know me, maybe_

_I’m sneaky as a ninja : <_

Jack chuckled under his nose, which made something in his stomach flutter. Probably those damned butterflies. He and Hiccup had been talking about sneaking food in the middle of the night. Weird topic, but Jack loved strange things.

_May I remind you that you’re trying to run_

_away from every PE lesson? (_ _「・_ _ω_ _・_ _)_ _「_

Ha, with this Hiccup couldn’t simply fight! This time Jack can win!

Another reply came lightning fast.

_Ugh._

Jack felt proudness swelling inside his brain. He did it. He won the fight. Oh man, it felt good. It also felt good to listen to Hiccup when he was talking about himself, but that was… beside the point.

_That was irrelevant! >.<_

Poor Hiccup was still trying to win this fight. No can do, darling. Jack was the winner here.

_I also remember you mentioning your rare talent_

_of falling down on the even road, so you know_ _(_ _￣_ _ω_ _￣)_

Jack clicked send and smiled under his nose.

It almost felt normal to speak with Hiccup like that. It almost felt like nothing had changed. But it was Jack who changed, his way of behaving, his feelings, his mind.

Even his way of thinking was different.

Yet, when he was speaking with him, it was almost like nothing changed, he was still the same old Jack who was able to smile even through the hardest times.

Sighing loudly, he took his phone and climbed down the stairs to the kitchen. What should he do? Some pesto pasta? Lasagna? Maybe curry? So many choices. Maybe something sweet? He kind of wanted something sweet right now to lift up his mood.

“Emma are crêpes okay for dinner?” Jack shouted, peeking from the kitchen and into the living room.

The brown smudge of hair turned on the couch and nodded vigorously.

“Is there whipped cream in the fridge?” She inquired, resting her crossed hands on the couch’s back.

Jack moved to the fridge and opened it. There wasn’t any instant whipped cream, but there was normal, sweet one, so technically they could have whipped cream.

“I will make some…” He mumbled to himself, as he took out milk and eggs. “There is!” He shouted instead to the living room.

“Yay!” Came the response.

And when Jack though that this was the end of the conversation, there was another shout, but this one a little bit hesitant and toned down than the previous ones.

“There is a card for you on the table!”

For Jack?

He moved to the table where indeed something was laying down. He grabbed the postcard and looked at the colorful and bright picture of the beach on the front. What the heck? Who could send him a postcard of summer in the middle of the winter?

He flipped the postcard and – uh oh – he knew this writing. He knew those curvy, elegant letters scattered across the back. He knew those empty inside dots. He knew these sharp numbers of his address.

It was his mother… the real one. The one he didn’t see like in two years.

So she was still currently in Greece? Well, good for her.

Jack put the milk and eggs down on the counter and started to read. Okay first few sentences were okay. She was sending her best wishes for… Happy Christmas and New Year? A little bit late, like two weeks late. But it was Eris – always running from one meeting to another. She probably had put the card into a mailbox in the middle of some rendezvous, definitely few days after Christmas’ Eve.

But only when Jack reached the end, he felt something in him dropping and crashing down.

_I’ll be coming home in February for a little bit. I hope we can meet. I call you then._

Great, this was exactly what Jack needed in his current mood. Eris wanting to meet with him. And so soon? What the heck? Couldn’t she call him and not send a postcard?

Jack stared at the card with weird and foreign emotions swirling and storming inside his stomach. He didn’t and did want to meet with her both in the same time. She was his mother, but… she wasn’t. Not in the emotional meaning of this word.

February was just around the corner, two weeks from now on. It was a terrible short span of time.

No, for now Jack will forget about it and try to solve himself, his problems, his friends’ problems. His mother’s topic could be put farther away in his mind until the time will come.

He hid the postcard inside his back pocket.

Now he really needed something sweet to lift up his mood.

His pocket vibrated, announcing new message. This time Jack wasted no time in fishing it out and opening to immediately reply.

He could be a little selfish, right? He kind of needed something to make him forget about the postcard and speaking with Hiccup always managed to lift up his spirits. This was only one reply, it couldn’t hurt much, right?

_Hmph, sneaky, little bastard >.>…_

_I’m not the one who is little (_ _✿_ _´_ _꒳_ _` )_

_You-_

Jack could already imagine Hiccup groaning, seconds away from flinging the phone at the wall or bed. Yop, totally was doing it and killing Jack in his mind in at least hundreds of painful ways.

Jack snickered under his nose, masking the mixed emotions dancing inside his mind.

He put the phone down and got the rest of ingredients for dinner. But second before turning on the mixer, his phone chirped one more time. No, no, two times!

_You’re unbelievable, you know right?_

And another one under it.

_Remind me why do I like you?_

And Jack knew Hiccup didn’t mean it like that. Like in the way Jack kind of wanted for the auburn haired boy to like him back right now. He was sure that Hiccup totally meant it in a friendly way. It was so obvious by the way Hiccup adored Aster and not Jack, but…

The sudden spark was there. It was killed as soon as it appeared, one blink of an eyes, shorter than a heartbeat – slow exhale of the warm air from his lungs and it all was crumpled and thrown into the back of his mind.

No chance.

* * *

Hiccup turned to his phone when he saw it blinking. He immediately grabbed the device and brushed the screen, feeling something inside his stomach floating.

_I don’t know about you, but I totally hate_

_optics, never could really understand it._

He exhaled slowly through his nose and tapped the reply, feeling the corners of his mouth tugging upwards.

If Hiccup had to be honest, writing with Aster was amazing. He had imagined doing so back before the whole fake-dating impromptu had started, and even few months after, but he never had expected for his dreams to come true.

It was a bliss, it was electrifying, it was astonishing and amazing and good and…

Hiccup simply really, really liked it.

_I never was good in astronomy,_

_even though I really like it D:_

At first they hadn’t really talked much, like neither of them had known what topic they should actually start to hold a conversation. But then Aster had written something about not being able to do some task during Chemistry test and it all came down from there (in the good way).

They were writing with each other for few days right now.

Even Astrid had noticed it, what… shouldn’t really surprise Hiccup that much, as they almost spent every minute together in school. What was weird was the fact that at first she had thought he had been writing with Jack.

No, totally unbelievable, even funny, right?

Right…

At first Hiccup hadn’t been sure whether he should tell her the truth or not, but he quickly had lost composure and showed her his phone.

Astrid… Astrid had reacted weirdly actually.

Hiccup kind of had expected something more from her. It was Astrid who always had nudged him into talking with Aster. It was always her who had been telling that he just needed to start conversation and not be afraid of consequences of being himself. It was Astrid who always had encouraged him that this would be fine.

So it was normal to expect something more than simple:

“Oh… that’s… great.”

She even had made these two small pauses, like she weighed her words, trying to choose the best option. There had been a weird mix of emotions running through her façade and Hiccup couldn’t decode most of them. Jump, spark, scratch, brush – they were appearing and disappearing too fast for his mind to comprehend their real meaning.

But in the end, she had grinned at him and patted on the back.

“That’s great.” She had repeated herself, like her brain hadn’t really written down that she had actually told the same thing already.

Strange.

But Hiccup felt better with her knowing it. It took some burden off his chest he wasn’t conscious of having.

However there was still something residing inside his heart, some dark precipitate that didn’t want to get washed away, no matter how many times he cleaned it. He had a feeling he should know what it was, bu-

Oh, another message.

Hiccup unlocked the phone and stared at the name glued to the screen.

He wrote a quick reply, feeling his heart beating loudly in his ears. One finger clicked send and he was just about to exit the tab, when he saw that he had not one but two new messages.

And there was a sudden swirl, some kind of perturbation inside his chest, a soft touch of something on a calm lake which caused the formation of round ripples on the surface. A skip, a beat, a pause.

Astrid wrote to him.

A tremor.

_Doing something on Saturday : )?_

Was Hiccup planning to do something on Saturday? Probably homework. And he had to make the project for this damned contest. Shit, he almost forgot about it. Well he kind of really forgot about it.

Shit, shit, shit… But he still had time till March right? Gladly he already showed the teacher his blueprints. Now he only needed to assemble it somehow. He wasn’t that good in those, but maybe he would manage to do it somehow.

But he really had to start doing it. On the other side, he didn’t want to say no to Astrid…

_Well I wanted to work a little bit on my project_

_but I will find some time for you, my lady =D_

Good enough.

Another exit from the tab. He was seconds away from moving to the main screen, but then he saw Jack’s name on the third place.

Aster had told him that he had asked Jack about his problems, but the white haired teen had evaded speaking. No wonder. Jack was stubborn, even more than Hiccup sometimes. And it would take hydraulic press to crack him open. But Hiccup wasn’t sure if that could work either…

Lately, Jack was writing with him less and less and Hiccup found himself missing it. The weird bickering, the strange messages that were full of memes, the sighs of being bored… The pure pleasure of talking with someone.

With Jack he never had to think hard to respond. He just was writing the first thing that popped into his head and boom! No pressure, no judgement, no need to pretend, no need to think what to say to look good.

With Aster it wasn’t… like that.

Hiccup shook his head quickly. What was with him and his weird way of thinking? No, better not to move into that field. He might get lost in the maze of his tangled emotions.

_Small shopping rendezvous in the mall? ;)_

_Just… the two of us? Like good old times?_

What did she mean by that? They were still best-friends and no one could replace Astrid. Yeah, he was a lot on his phone recently, but Astrid should know that it wasn’t because of that, right?

Jack didn’t respond to him until the very late evening and Hiccup would have to lie if he said that he wasn’t worried about it.

* * *

Saturday came in the blink of an eye. Lately the whole time was passing so fast like someone just upgraded the whole time machine to move faster and faster.

Hiccup pocketed his phone and met with Astrid in front of her house. Her home was on the way to the city center, so he had no problems with stopping to get her.

Astrid looked… better. She actually looked much better. She stepped out of the house with a grin plastered to her face.

“Thank you for going out with me.” She gasped when she met Hiccup on the pavement.

Hiccup didn’t mind. Back before the whole thing with Jack started, they had been going a lot to the mall during weekends, but then the whole business had made everyone busy and the tradition got lost somewhere, smudged away in their calendars.

Kind of sad, a little bit. Hiccup never was fond of walking around malls in search for clothes, but Astrid adored it and who he was to say no to his friend?

They walked slowly, talking about small things.

They weren’t even half way there when Hiccup felt his jacket’s pocket vibrating with a new message. There was a sudden sharp squeeze of his chest, a sudden need emerging from his mind and spasmodic twitch of his gloved fingers.

And before he could comprehend what was happening, he was already taking out his phone and clicking a response. Few seconds, one swish movement of his finger and yet another message was send.

Then he caught Astrid’s eyes on him and… Hiccup blushed.

“Sorry…” He mumbled, putting his phone back in his pocket.

“No worries.” Astrid said and smiled at him, but it didn’t reach her eyes which darkened a little. Or maybe it was only a trick of light.

Hiccup wanted for it to be the latter.

* * *

Hiccup thought he would manage both. Come on, girls could do multitasking – drying their hair while putting on an underlay and in the same time speaking on the phone. Three things in one moment! It didn’t sound that difficult. Okay maybe doing three things in the same time could sound a little bit worse, but Hiccup only had to do two things, so it shouldn’t be that bad, right?

Right.

Apparently Hiccup was a living disaster in multitasking. How could girls do it? They even were able to make it look so astonishingly easy? Like addition. One plus one was two. But Hiccup only got some weird letters – formulas with not enough equations to solve the unknowns he had.

Hiccup though he could do two things both in the same time. One – spend time with Astrid, talk with her and catch up on things they had missed and two – text with Aster. But apparently he wasn’t gifted with a talent to do both things in the same time. Unfortunately, he only found out that he was terrible at it after the ticking bomb finally burst, scattering shards of sadness and guilt everywhere. Hiccup felt like a terrible friend.

He was probably a horrible friend in the end. But from the very beginning.

* * *

“What do you want?”

“Uhm…” Hiccup incoherently mumbled, rising his face from his phone.

“The coffee.” Astrid tapped the menu laying in front of Hiccup. “What do you want?”

“Oh, right.” He quickly snatched the menu and opened it on random page. Which happened to not be filled with coffees, so he flipped to previous pages. His eyes jumped like electrons between different orbitals under radiation light, only to land on something. “I’ll take…” He pushed his glasses higher and leaned closer. “Café au Lait, tall.”

Astrid gathered both their menus and stood up from her seat. She moved quickly to the line snaking in front of the counter.

Hiccup in the meantime looked back at the screen of his phone. Thirty four messages. Aster had sent him thirty four messages since Hiccup had met up with Astrid. And Hiccup had sent him twenty nine. In the span of two hours they exchanged sixty three messages.

Hiccup was in heaven. His inside was buzzing with joy and anticipation to see another message. Another part of the conversation about things he knew and enjoyed.

They talked mostly about science and it was so amazing to be able to find someone who often thought the same way. Fishlegs also liked science, but he was more practical in this matter than theoretical. Aster and Hiccup were definitely the latter. And Hiccup loved it.

Oh, sixty four.

Fingers moved swiftly, accommodated already with letters and numbers he wanted to use. He read the message, then re-read it one more time and sent, feeling the mix of anxiety and boiling warmness spreading over his abdomen.

Yeah, he often was afraid that he would write something inappropriate or something that would made Aster think wrongly about him. But it looked that till now he was acing his every message.

 _With Jack it was never like that_ – whispered someone behind his ear, but Hiccup brushed it by focusing on the phone. That is until Astrid put down two glasses with too much force necessary to do this quite delicate process. A long stream of foamed milk trailed on one cup’s side.

“Wow wow wow, watch out Astrid!” Hiccup said, quickly grabbing a napkin and brushing the spilled drink away.

“Sorry.” The girl responded, slumping down in the seat in front of him.

Maybe it was only an imagination, but Hiccup had a feeling – lone though, a hunch – that she wasn’t sorry at all.

But why?

“Seriously…” Hiccup mumbled and crumpled the napkin.

Astrid only hmphed in response and teared open paper package for her straw. The tore off pieces flew in the air and almost landed in Hiccup’s own drink, so he had to move it closer to himself. Come on, what was wrong with her? It was her who wanted to go out with him to hang out and now she was acting like that!?

Hiccup took the spoon and started to slowly eat the foam from the top.

To be honest, perfectly honest, the atmosphere around them was thicker than tar*. It was almost sticking to his body, making him nervous and hot with uncomfortableness.

It was never like that with Astrid and him. They had arguments and good or bad moments, but now it was different – an unknown in the equation, he wanted to solve.

Astrid slurped loudly the drink in front of her. Frappe? In the middle of the winter?

They sat there, not speaking, not even looking at each other, but at the table between them. It was awful, it was terrible, it made him itchy and edgy inside. He wanted some kind of distraction from the steel chains hugging his chest.

One message appeared from Aster and he quickly replied to him, hoping that maybe the butterflies (or bees, or humming birds, or those weird vibrating atoms) inside his stomach could subside the feeling of… something inside of him.

But it didn’t really help much.

Then another one popped. Reply. Another one. Another reply. He took a sip. Message. A small chuckle. Reply. Another sip. Soft blink of the screen. Reply. Vibration. Half of the drink already gone. The atmosphere still there, now maybe even thicker than earlier. Message. Reply. A buzz. Response. Sip. Lick of his lips. Another messa-

Astrid put her drink down.

“I’m going.” She said, starting to gather her things and two bags of clothes she now owned.

Hiccup’s eyes jumped from the screen to his friend.

“What? Wait. I didn’t drink it all.” Hiccup said, moving his hand to the backpack now laying on the seat next to him.

“No need.” Astrid snapped, standing up and throwing the handbag on her arm, almost pushing her glass off the table in the process. “I think you have more fun talking with Aster on the phone, than spending time with me.”

What? Was she out of her mind?

“No… no, Astrid, it isn’t like that…” Hiccup started, feeling the tremors sparkling inside his stomach. “You know-”

“The coffees ale already paid. No need to give me my money back.” She mumbled, grabbed two bags. “Have fun. See ya later.”

And then she stomped to the exit, leaving Hiccup alone with her empty glass, his half drunk, opened message from his crush on the table and overwhelming feeling of failing inside his mind.

* * *

Jack sighed as he zipped higher his jacket. All good things had to come to an end at some point.

Apparently today afternoon had to end too. To be honest, Jack didn’t really want to go back home yet. He could still spend some time with his friends. It was an amazing way to stop thinking about other things. Plus he could catch up with all the things he had missed in their lives.

But unfortunately they had other things to tend to and now Jack was left alone with his thoughts. No, he should stop it. This was getting him nowhere.

He was doing a spectacular job at trying to forget. Every inner Jack should clap and bow to him and his amazing abilities to forget about all this warm emotions flowing over his body, flooding his chest whenever he thought about Hiccup.

Yop, he did amazingly. See, even now he was thinking about it.

Jack sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. No, he couldn’t return home yet, he needed to loosen up and fill his brain with mindless… something. There was Burgess Arcadia not too far away from him. He could spend some minutes (hours, one inner Jack coughed to clarify this though) there and forget about all the worries.

Yeah, it seemed like a good idea.

So he did exactly that. He turned on his heels and stomped slowly in the direction of the bright place, filled with happy screams and blasting colors. He wondered if someone beat his record on the new game. What was its name again? A yeah, _Sugar Rush_ *. A game a little too bright for human’s eye to feel at ease, but weirdly addicting and after few tries Jack started to really like it.

If someone indeed beat him, then Jack had to retake the first place.

He was kind of lost in his thoughts when he felt a hard shove to his arm that sent him almost splattering into a nearby lamppost. Uh-huh rude! What was with people marching through the street like they owned it! Come on! It was a public place, not a race track.

His eyes jumped to the person who bumped into him and he was just about to open his mouth, maybe add something, but froze.

Not actually froze, because even thought it was cold outside for everyone else, it wasn’t that cold for Jack. However that was not the point.

He had a second, maybe less, before the face looked down (or maybe didn’t even glance at him in the first place) and made a step to walk away.

“Sorry…” Came a hoarse mumble from definitely feminine lips.

And uh-huh, Jack was stubborn and reckless and he often acted on an impulse. Just like in this very moment. Before knowing what was happening his hand shot and caught the person’s wrist in tight, but hopefully not too harsh grip.

Then there was a pause, a slow moment to catch back the rhythm of normal beating heart, a hesitant tilt of a head and…

“Astrid?” Jack asked, stepping closer.

Because it had to be her. But she looked so different in this moment, so much weaker, so much more broken. Like a strong glass vase with a thin crack running from the base to the very top.

“Everything… everything’s okay?” Jack inched closer now, just a step away from the smaller girl in front of him.

Astrid didn’t respond for some time, maybe it was few seconds, maybe even a full minute, before the hoarse voice finally left her lips.

“I’m a terrible friend.”

But the voice was so timid, so small, so quiet that Jack barely heard it through the bustling of the afternoon city.

And he felt ashamed, but he had to say it.

“What? Can you repeat, I didn’t hear you?”

Then it was like a broken dam finally going down.

Astrid snapped her head up and uh… She really did look terrible.

“I’m a horrible friend.”

Jack never had seen her like that. She was always strong, always keeping her head high, always emanated this power. Maybe because of that Jack had started thinking of her as someone unbreakable.

But it was wrong.

Now her lips were dry, chapped, with spider web of thin cuts everywhere, like she nibbled on them for far too long. Her eyes, usually strong, confident, oozing power, were dulled, accompanied in some twisted way by pinkish rims in the corners. One blonde lock of her hair broke free from the braid and now was glued to her forehead and eyelid like it wanted to brush away the unshed tears that were there, desperately kept away from the outside world to be seen.

Something inside of Jack clenched and shuddered seeing Astrid like that.

Then her words finally were registered by his brain which allowed his throat to become loose and for his voice to finally be heard.

“I’m sure that’s not true…” Jack softly said, trying to sound confident and warm, both in the same time.

It was hard.

Astrid sniffed, hung her head down and gripped tightly the shopping bags inside her hands.

“I really am a bad friend.” She mumbled one more time. “I know… I know I should be happy for him, but I can’t… And I leashed on him…” There was a low hiccup leaving her lips in pair with a small shudder running down her spine. “And… and…” Astrid started, over and over again, similar to a broken record.

But every broken thing needed some repairs here and there.

Jack weighed his options. The analysis was running fast in his head, with different outcomes appearing and disappearing in front of his eyes. What to do? How to act? What kind of things he should say?

There was one option, one deadly option, but Jack couldn’t simple imagine doing other thing. So he did the most dangerous thing he would be doing during his life. It may kill him, it may leave him with broken arms and legs, it may leave him with too many bruises to count, but he had to do it.

So Jack simply hugged Astrid, because she looked like she needed it. Desperately, achingly, painfully. Like she needed some kind of solid ground.

Her body tensed and for a brief moment Jack was almost sure she would back away and punch him in the guts, leaving him wincing on the dirty ground.

It probably would happen any other day, because Jack had seen Astrid doing so. Kicking and punching people who tried to get near to her. So he wouldn’t be surprised it the same fate would be put upon his poor soul.

But nothing like this happened. Astrid didn’t reciprocated the hug, her hands still holding the bag tight, but her head moved few inches closer to Jack’s chest, almost laying down on it.

Well, this would be as much as he could get from her.

Jack patted slowly her back, trying to soothe the tense muscles. It was awkward, kind of harsh on the edges, but Jack didn’t mind.

He hugged Astrid Hofferson and he was still alive. A miracle. Something was telling him that he would run out of luck sometimes soon, however it didn’t matter.

Astrid didn’t cry, there were no spasms shuddering her body, there were no sobs leaving her hurt lips. It was only Astrid, kind of broken, with thin cracks running around her, but it was still the same strong woman. Nothing changed in Jack’s way of viewing her.

After few minutes she sniffed and said into his jacket.

“If you tell anyone about it, I will kill you personally and bury the body.”

Jack couldn’t stop the chuckle from leaving his body.

“I wouldn’t dream about it.” He said, running his hand up, near her nape. “Are you feeling better?”

“Kind off.” Astrid admitted, sniffing one more time. “Would you be mad if I brush my nose on your blouse?”

“A little bit?” Jack said, speaking half of the truth. He kind of liked his blouse without some people’s fluids (for example snot, blood, tears, sweat, and many others), but he wouldn’t be that mad. “Wait a sec.”

Astrid moved away, a step or so, and waited as Jack fumbled with the backpack he had on himself. There were tons of things he needed (and not) inside, but after some time he somehow found the thing he was searching for. Simple pocket tissue. They were crumpled and looked like they were filled with crumbs of some cookie he once had there, but Astrid took them gratefully, slipping one out and blowing her nose.

After she was done, she hid the tissue inside her pocket, fumbling a little bit with bags in her hand.

“Do you want to find some place warm and tell me what happened?” Jack proposed, leaning and looking at Astrid’s face.

The girl nodded slowly.

* * *

In the end they didn’t go somewhere warm, but bought each other French fries and settled in the park in the city center.

The park was small, crowded with too many trees growing in one place and only one road leading from one side to another. Jack didn’t really like this place, it always made him feel kind of depressed for the poor trees and flowers growing there, but it was the only secluded place without much people.

They both sat on the back of the bench, because the normal seat was covered with snow. Jack didn’t mind, he only had to watch out to not flip backwards, which would be terrible.

Astrid’s shopping bags were hanging on the back of the bench, next to the girl, who was now dipping her fry in the ketchup. She put it in her mouth and nibbled on it slowly.

Jack didn’t want to really push her. They weren’t technically close friends, but she was Hiccup’s best-friend and he liked her, so Jack wanted to help and know what made her behave like that.

After some time, when the silence around them settled on comfortable level, Jack decided to brush the topic.

“So?” He nudged softly, taking few of his own French fries and throwing them into his mouth. "What happened?”

Astrid didn’t speak immediately. She furrowed her eyebrows, hunched her shoulder and dipped another fry in the smashed tomatoes, but it stayed there for some time.

“I got into argument with Hiccup.” She finally admitted.

But before Jack was able to even open his mouth and ask what she meant, Astrid continued.

“Or I think it was. I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t an argument in the end. I just got pissed and kind of leashed on him.” She sighed, rubbing her eyes with her free hand. “And I know… I know that I shouldn’t do it, that it was childish of me, but I… I don’t know. I think all this emotions finally accumulated in me to this point of breaking out.”

Okay, that was something for a start.

“Okay.” He nodded, more to himself than to Astrid. “So about what this argument was actually?” Because Jack had hard time imagining Hiccup and Astrid arguing over anything.

Astrid fidgeted in place, picked up the fry and put it in her mouth.

“It wasn’t an argument in the end…” She said, with mouth maybe not technically full with food, but definitely with something there. Yet neither of them minded. “I was… It’s just…” She swallowed thickly and then became silent.

It looked like even Astrid had hard time trying to show what was on her heart. So similar to Hiccup. And so similar to Jack… So similar almost to everyone close to Jack.

Her fingers twitched when she was reaching for another fry. Jack wondered if it was because of the cold nipping on them, or due to the overwhelming stress.

“It’s just?” Jack tried again, hoping to soothe Astrid into talking.

Because it really looked like she needed it. Like she wanted some kind of person who would listen to her. Not someone specifically close and in the same time not someone who knew nothing about her. Just a friendly ear who could listen and someone who wouldn’t spill the secrets away, but keep a hold on them, hiding somewhere where no one else would find them.

She didn’t speak for a while. Quite long while. Jack wanted to say that he didn’t mind, but he kind of did, yet he didn’t dare to nudge her further in fear of her closing down on him. Some people were like that and if the locking sound would echo in his ears, there would be no way to open the lock back again.

So Jack had to be patient, even though he wasn’t that good at it.

It’s not like he was in a hurry. He didn’t want to go back home yet anyway.

So they both ate slowly, sharing a silence thrown upon them like veils, barricading them from the outside world. One person passed them, with a small dog following her around, but she paid them no mind.

Jack was half way done with his fries, when Astrid spoke again:

“You won’t laugh, right?”

The sentence was hesitant, unsteady and yet held a tone of threat and danger to it. Only Astrid could ask such simple question and sound both fearful and menacingly in the same time.

“Never.” Jack promised, looking right into her eyes.

Astrid nodded, swallowed hard and then finally spoke:

“I guess, I guess I was afraid, you know? I mean, I suddenly felt like everyone important to me was moving away. Hiccup and I are best-friends, but ever since this whole fiasco with you started, he… it feels like he’s slowly moving away. Not spending as much time with me as before.” Astrid glanced at him, but quickly averted his gaze. “And at first I thought it was fine, I was okay with it. I mean, maybe this way he would open up to people and you know, find a courage he need.” She tightened her grip on the bag of fries in her hands. “I guess it kind of backfired at me? I think… I guess I started to feel lonely? I mean I was happy for him that he was spending more time with other people, but in the same time I had this feeling I was left behind. And then Ruffnut met this guy Eret or what’s-his-name and… and after that the only thing she was interested in was her phone and his stupid messages and suddenly our every conversation revolved around him and it kind of started to tire me and…” She started to ramble, just like Hiccup. They may be ice and fire, stars and planets, sparks and voids, but it was amazing how many similar features they shared. “And I kind of thought it will be alright as long as I still have Hiccup with me. But then… but then…”

“Then?”

“Then he finally get a hold of his number!” Astrid huffed, throwing her hands in the air and almost sending the last few fries flying. After that she slumped back down, crossing her hands on the chest. “And I know I should be happy for Hiccup. God, I even told Hiccup to ask for his number for so fucking long. But I don’t know… I was maybe happy for him at some point, but it turned out horrible! He spends now every minute on his damn phone. And I asked him to hang out today and even though I know he hates walking around mall, he always helped me the best he could. But today he was only looking at his damn phone and I…” There was a rip in her voice, a small disturbance in the air. “And I…”

Jack nudged closer, not as close as he would normally do with other people, but close enough to show reassurance.

“Felt lonely?” He proposed.

“Alone even.” Astrid chuckled dryly, with no hint of optimism in her voice.

She was drained, Jack could see it. It was so sad that sometimes the friendship which should build you up was tearing you down, piece by piece.

It’s good, amazing to have friends, but it’s not like you become friends and poof, all work is done. It is a commitment. Sometimes it difficult to stay with other people, even though the only thing you want is to lay down and hide from the world.

And of course it’s never all sunshine in this world. There are arguments, there are heavy and terrible times, but there are also first rays between gray clouds and soothing breeze of something new or old and amazing altogether.

Life was like that. Unfair, sometimes filled with more bad things than good, and sometimes majorly filled with optimism. You can’t tell for sure what happens next, you’re not sure of the future, but there are things you can change.

Life was terrifying, but astonishingly beautiful. And friendship was one of the best parts of it – it made your journey through it less lonely, less bitter, less fearful.

So Jack could understand the fear of losing someone to such harsh weapon like  words.

But he also knew Hiccup. Maybe not as long as Astrid did definitely, but he more over knew him to this point he was sure of what he would say next.

“I don’t think Hiccup will be or is mad at you.” Jack slowly said, looking at her.

Astrid sniffed, grabbed another fry and threw it inside her mouth.

“How can you be so sure?” She asked instead, no menacingly, but kind of desperately.

“Well…” Jack cleared his throat. “I maybe don’t know Hiccup as much as you do, but I guess I also see other things that you may not remember right now. And I don’t think he can get angry or stay angry at his friends for too long. No matter how much he says he dislikes people, he love you more than anything else in this world.” At this Astrid lifted her gaze and focused on him. “I think…” Okay now a little bit worse part. “I think he feels guilty now for what he has done actually.” At this the blonde haired girl hung her head and bit hard her lip.

“See? I’m a bad friend…”

Jack groaned internally. So people were like that. Kind, but with thick shell around them. But he had to try and sent the message.

“No, you’re not. Only because you told the truth about yourself, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Of course you could do it in different way, but it isn’t bad that you spoke the truth.” Astrid twitched, but remained in the same position.” I even think that Hiccup maybe needed some kind of outburst to really understand what you meant.” Then after a second, he chuckled under his breath. “He probably thinking right now what should he do to apologize to you.”

After that there was silence. Different than the previous one. Kind of like the one when you enter a garden on the first day after winter finally moved away. The silence when everything is still asleep – there is no lush grass, the trees are still bare and naked and the flowers don’t even think about blossoming. It is kind of terrifying at first, with everything so still and unmoving around you. There are few breaths of hesitation, of fear lurking inside your heart, but it’s quickly dissipated with weird, overflowing calmness emanating from the nature around you.

Silence which transform into something better. Now, Jack felt like that.

Astrid contemplated the idea proposed by Jack – if her furrowing eyebrows and moving lips were any indications. It looked like she had some kind of inner fight with herself, but then the thin, not suiting her wrinkles smoothened out and she sighed heavily. Like really. Jack never heard her sigh so loudly and so long. It was almost like with this one big exhale she get rid of all the tension residing in her body until now.

Probably not completely. Rarely problems could be solved so quickly and without a trace of them being somewhere in the cellar of the mind – hidden in labeled box, like old clothes.

But now it could be pushed away. For a little bit or maybe even for longer.

“Knowing Hiccup… you’re probably right.” Astrid finally said, lifting her eyes back at Jack. The same spark, the same light wasn’t fully there, but it was a good start. “He did kind of looked devastated when I left him back there in café.”

Jack shrugged.

“At least he’ll learn from it.” He commented. “As I said, a little bit harsh way of teaching, but good lesson nevertheless.”

“Yeah…” Astrid nodded to herself. “Yeah, you’re right.” Her hand found its way to her hair, but found obstacle in the hat, which she pushed away a little bit in the end. “I only hope everything will turn out okay in the end.”

“I’m sure you’ll make up before Monday morning classes.”

This time the pure enthusiasm in Astrid’s eyes couldn’t be mistaken for anything else.

“You think?”

“Totally.” He honestly was speaking the truth. Maybe he didn’t know Hiccup as good as Astrid did, but he knew at least that much – and it was the fact that Hiccup couldn’t live long without talking with Astrid. He was probably panicking right now, trying to find a way to make up with his best-friend.

And maybe, just maybe he would ask Jack for opinions on this matter. This idea warmed him a little bit inside.

Denying it would be fruitless at this point. Jack started… started actually to accept the idea and not only brush it under the carpet. He couldn’t run away from this and especially couldn’t run away from the thoughts swimming inside of him. It was like trying to run away from pollens during spring – futile and impossible.

Astrid finally graced him with a hesitant, but pure grin.

“Thanks Jack.” Then her smile turned into an evil smirk. “But if you tell anyone-“

“Yeah, yeah, I know you can kick my butt. My lips are sealed, you have my promise.” Jack quickly finished, already knowing what the girl wanted to say. It wasn’t so hard to guess. Astrid liked her reputation and Jack kind of liked it too.

“For this I guess I should thank you too?”

“You don’t need to as it should be normal, I guess...” He shrugged with his hand moving to the nape. “But it would be welcomed nevertheless.”

Astrid snorted and grabbed the last few pieces of fries from the paper bag, which she threw away into a bin next to the bench.

“To be perfectly honest Jack…” She started, with a tone of unsureness at the very beginning. “At first when Hiccup told me about your plan I was totally terrified. I maybe didn’t have the worst opinion about you, but yeah… it wasn’t so good either. And Hiccup is my best-friend, so I was scared that somehow you would put him in more mess than he actually was.” She cleared her throat. It kind of hurt Jack that Astrid had thought like that few months ago, but from her words it seemed like that wasn’t the case now. Which was good. Very good. “You turned out to be the nicest guy in the whole world – well at least this is what Hiccup is telling me about you.”

Jack tried really hard not to blush and burst from happiness after hearing those words. He knew Hiccup and Astrid were talking about Jack. Hello? He was doing the very same thing with Aster and Tooth, so it was nothing surprising. But Hiccup speaking so highly of mere Jack? This… this was astonishingly building him up inside.

“He… he does?” And, oh god, of course he had to stutter on this one sentence. Come on! He was mighty Jackson Overland – and it took one nice thing said from Hiccup to crumble the strength around him. It wasn’t even Hiccup who said it (figuratively speaking it was), but Astrid who repeated the words, but it did things to Jack’s inside. Nice things. Very warm, buzzing things.

“Sure he does.” Astrid confirmed, looking back at him. After that she blinked, at first slowly, but then faster. And then – oh no, Jack had bad feeling about it – the soft smile turned into a smirk. After that she said nothing more only hummed. Hummed in that very specific way. Way that meant nothing good. At least nothing good for Jack.

“What?” Jack asked. And maybe his voice broke down in the middle of this very short word. But only maybe.

Or maybe it was the truth.

Astrid caught on it and her evil smile grew wider and wider.

“Someone has a nice blush on their cheeks~.”

Oh god, no. Please no. Tell him that he didn’t blush after only hearing that Hiccup complimented him. No, no, no, this would be a disaster. Jack rarely did that. It was almost impossible for him to blush while hearing some praise. Because, come on, a lot of people praised him – and some of these things were true, some were not. And he always felt happy while hearing their warm words. But he rarely blushed so hard for it to be so visible.

And what should Jack do in this situation?

Deny it. Deny it all the way!

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Jack said, turning his head away. Which maybe wasn’t the brightest thing to do around a predator like Astrid, who could smell the fear probably from miles away.

Another hum – almost seductive – reached his ears.

“Oh, really?”

“Yup, totally.” Jack was a master of denial. He became one just few weeks ago and he was very proud of his skills.

“Because I think someone got flustered that his fake-boyfriend complimented him.” Astrid almost sing-sang it now – cheerfully and teasingly.

But she had the best aim around here. Nothing could slip past her curious eyes, especially if it was related to her friends. But right now Jack really wanted for her to stop. He only warmed recently to the idea that his feelings were very real, and not part of some kind of twisted imagination. It was still too early.

“Oh you do!” Astrid cooed. A sound that should be sweet if it didn’t leave her lips precisely.

Jack grumbled something under his nose and still averted her gaze. Okay, he can admit that right now he was acting a little like a child. Ugh, truth to be told not even a little, but a lot. Dang it.

“Jackie, come on, there is nothing to be ashamed of.” Oh no, where did she hear that nickname for him. Nu-huh. It was terrible. He only hoped that she came up with it right now and won’t spill it further to Hiccup.

“No!” He said, still looking at the other side. Oh the tree was so interesting. It was so… tall… and broad… and without leaves… and covered in snow… Very interesting, such tree wasn’t growing everywhere.

“Well I guess you can enjoy it as much as you can for now.” She suddenly said, with a tone of sadness hinted somewhere in her voice. And then quietly, more like it was a thought that accidentally slipped past her lips, she whispered. “It soon will be probably over anyway.”

Jack’s brain short-circuited.

What? What did she mean by that? Did she mean their fake-relationship? But why? Hiccup didn’t tell him anything about finishing it. Well, Heather wasn’t bothering Jack anymore and Dagur wasn’t doing the same to Hiccup, but he thought that they should prolong it a little bit longer, because… just to be sure! Because you never know when they could strike again. Right, that was the only explanation. Or at least it was… some time ago.

But something in Jack stopped – and then there was a sudden, engulfing silence in the place where his heart hammered wildly just few seconds ago.

Then he turned around, so fast he almost fell down from on the bench.

“What do you mean?” He asked, trying to sound normal and only a tiny bit curious. But it was a lie. A fear, a trembling nervousness was eating him up from inside.

Astrid blinked, taken aback by the sudden movement or the question or maybe even both.

“Well you know, because Aster and Hiccup are getting along so well right now…”

What? What was she saying? Her words mingled, got disrupted somewhere in the journey from her mouth to his ears and somehow the only thing Jack heard was _Aster and Hiccup_.

He had to look pretty dumbfounded, because Astrid licked her lips slowly, nervously and continued, now eyeing him warily.

“You do know that they are talking a lot through their phones lately? Like when I say _a lot_ I really mean _a lot_.” She followed, speaking suddenly slower, maybe articulating every word separately for Jack to comprehend the real meaning of them.

And Jack understood her. Understood the second part of the message more than the previous one. He understood the implications. He understood the meaning. He understood the hidden explanation.

Then Jack felt like drowning. Like someone brutally pushed his head underwater and kept him there, until all the air, the sweet, sweet oxygen, left his burning lungs. The water, the thick atmosphere pushed on all his organs, making them twitch and then tense in sudden realization.

 _Aster and Hiccup_. It should be obvious. Jack even wanted them to be happy together, but it was all before… was all before he… before he…

He wanted to get out, but he was pushed deeper and deeper until the bonds around his lungs, or maybe heart, or maybe around his emotions became too much and slowly, step after step they crumbled down.

So did Jack. He felt himself shattering, with long thin lines running around his inner self.

“Jack? Everything’s… okay?”

It should be okay. It fucking should be. Hiccup was Jack’s friend, Aster was Jack’s best-friend. They were two very close to him people. He loved them and wanted what was best for them. Aster was amazing and very kind under the shell of indifference. Hiccup was sweet and thoughtful, even though he pretended he wasn’t. And they were maybe not perfect, but good for each other. They would make a great pair. And they would be happy together.

And this was what mattered.

So why the sudden thought hurt him so much right now? Was making his chest clench so painfully – as the air from his chest bubbled forward, toward the surface, but Jack was pushed deeper and deeper, in the direction of the black and hollow bottom.

All those emotions, hidden inside of him were growing bigger and stronger with every passing second. Jack had hid it so good and had locked it so well that he had made no place for the grow of his emotions. But they grew and now the lock broke down.

“Jack?”

And then there was hand reaching for him underwater. And maybe in any other situation he wouldn’t grab it, _this golden opportunity_ , but now he was so tired of hiding it, of pretending, of trying to run away from his own thoughts that he simple grabbed this palm and allowed for this someone to bring him back to the surface.

“Astrid, I…” Jack started, voice hoarse and far away from sounding as okay as he wanted for it to sound. “I like Hiccup.”

It felt good to take a proper, free breath.

“What?” Did Astrid move closer, or did she just raise her voice. Jack wasn’t sure.

But he was sure his heart was beating like crazy with the sudden spoken revelation. His thoughts were one thing, but speaking it out loud, especially to Hiccup’s best-friend gave his words a whole another meaning. A solid meaning. Because he honestly felt this way.

“You… you do? Wait!” Yep, Astrid, definitely moved closer. Maybe to hear him better. Or maybe she wanted to see what was wrong with Jack. “You mean like you like him more than a friend?”

Jack wanted to say it in his own voice, but it got lost somewhere in the middle of leaving his lips, so he only made incoherent noises and nodded.

“Oh…”A quiet whisper. “Oh.” A little bit louder repeat. “Oh shit!” That definitely was a shout. “Shit, Jack that is…” The yell cut sharply and Jack glanced up at Astrid who was looking up at the sky. “… that would be amazing if not for…” She swallowed hard and turned to him. Their eyes met and Jack could see some hesitation, some pained revelation inside her orbs. “…Aster.”

And the sudden happiness, the quick beats of his heart stilled and slowed down, when the sudden darkness crept over it once again.

“Yeah…” Jack said, hanging his head down and looking at the ground between the boards of the bench.

For some time Astrid didn’t speak. Maybe she was processing the words that finally left Jack’s mouth or maybe she was thinking of what she should say next. Then Jack could hear her swallowing one more time.

“Jack, what do you want to do now?” She asked, unnaturally soft for her.

And he… he didn’t know the answer to this questions. He was afraid of answering it even, of giving some clear one way reply. Because he simply couldn’t. He wasn’t sure what he should or want to do in this situation.

So he put his face in his hands and sighed loudly, feeling the tension seeping back into his muscles.

“I don’t know, Astrid.” He murmured, voice becoming a grumbling mess while brushing through his skin.

“Because you know that Hiccup has-“

“Feelings for Bunny?” Jack finished, feeling more miserable with every passing second. Or word. Or thought. “Yeah… I know.” Then after full ten seconds passed, he repeated himself. “I know.”

Astrid fidgeted on her seat next to Jack. There was some rustling, like she moved her hands. Maybe she pushed the fringe from her forehead? Maybe she brushed her freezing hands together? Maybe she reached for Jack, backing away before her palm could touch his body? Jack wasn’t sure.

This situation was messed up. And he was sometimes making fun of people in dramas or romance movies. Back then it all had looked so easy when he had been rooting for his favourite character. But in reality it was different. He couldn’t see the spoilers, couldn’t peek into the future or someone else’s mind. No matter how hard he wanted it. To see just a glimpse of someone else’s thoughts, to have even one information.

But it was impossible.

Jack was left alone with his own thoughts, needs, prayers and wishes. There was no one rooting for him from behind the pages or TV screen. He had to make his own choices.

But he simply didn’t know which choice to pick. In which direction move. Every road seemed risky now and he was afraid of the consequences. For him. For his friends. For Hiccup and for Aster.

“Hey.” It was Astrid, nudging his leg with her own one.

Jack wasn’t in a mood to show his face yet. He felt comfortable, secure in the soft prison of his own palms around his head. Here he didn’t have to pretend. Here he could be himself and simply feel… sad.

“I don’t know if this could help you at all…” She started, prolonging her words unnaturally, like she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to say more or not. ”… or even a little bit, as this is only my opinion. No one has to agree or disagree with it or anything like that, but…” There was a frustrated sigh, much longer than the ones she had done today and this time she definitely ruffled her own hair. “If my words mean anything to you then I think you and Hiccup would fit each other.”

This was probably the closest to Astrid’s approvement of Jack’s feelings he was going to get.

Maybe if someone else said it, then it would be different. Maybe then it wouldn’t shake some kind of lever inside Jack’s mind. Maybe then it wouldn’t pull a string inside Jack’s heart. Maybe then his emotions, after hearing it, would be different.

But it was Astrid who had said that. And her words, no matter how complicated, cut in half, stuttered embarrassedly, started over and over again, meant a lot to Jack.

And even though he still felt lost, her words shooshed away the fog encircling his heart.

Then finally Jack lifted his head and looked back at Astrid, who was looking at him with blush adorning her face.

Welp, he never had seen her like that. It must be difficult for her to say such things to Jack and he really, really appreciated it right now. Especially right now.

Astrid was a good friend, managing to break through her out-of-comfort zones when needed. It takes bravery to do so. Hiccup really had great friends.

But Jack also had great friends.

“Thank you.” Jack finally said, putting on a still faint smile, trying to show gratitude.

Astrid then quickly fumbled with her jacket and took out her phone.

“I’ll give you my phone number in case you’ll ever want to talk about it.” She said, not looking at Jack. Her gaze was directed at the lightened up screen of her phone, where Jack already could see some unopened messages. Maybe Hiccup already tried to get in touch with her?

It wouldn’t surprise him at all.

But would Jack want to talk about his crush? Because this was crush? Jack had a crush on Hiccup, right? He liked him more than a friend and wanted to spend more time with him to get to know him better. He wanted to see Hiccup smile more, this genuine grin with his teeth sticking out a little bit. He wanted to see small wrinkles appear in the corner of his eyes when Hiccup was enjoying himself. He wanted Hiccup to not be afraid of showing himself and his emotions more. He wanted for Hiccup to simply feel good with himself and not try to pretend to be someone else. Because he was perfect the way he was – all awkward, hesitant, shy, but full with passion and love for his friends.

Jack kept all of those emotions inside of him like they were unimportant, maybe even a little bit bad on the side. But they weren’t bad. They shouldn’t even be. He shouldn’t feel sorry or apologize for feeling something more than a friendship. Stuff like this happens every day.

And even though he still wasn’t even close to knowing what he wanted to do with himself and his new revelation (maybe he even stepped back, if he considered the knowledge of today finally sinking in) it felt… good to share this information.

Jack didn’t regret it.

And Astrid looked like she wanted to help in this matter.

“You ready to write that down?”

Or maybe this wasn’t even a question, but an order.

Jack fumbled quickly with his pockets, searching for the device. He found it near his leg and took it out.

Astrid listed down her phone number, which Jack saved as simple ‘Astrid’. After that he told her his own number, which she also saved.

“Okay, if you ever want to talk about your crush just send me a message. I’m quite good at this type of talks.” Astrid said, slowly moving off the back of the bench. She moved to her bags and hung them on her hand.

“Much practices?” Jack asked, jumping from the bench himself and brushing away any snow that could residue on his trouser.

“You wouldn’t even believe how much practice I actually have.”

Jack probably wouldn’t. Astrid honestly looked like the type who hates every romance related topics. But maybe she just switches off during those talks and only nods when she thinks it is necessary. That would be less surprising than her listening intensely to someone talk about their love life.

But life was full of surprises. Today quite confirmed this theory.

Jack didn’t comment it, yet nudged with his head in the direction of the outskirts of the city where they both lived. He proposed holding some of her bags on the way to their homes, but she told him that she can manage to do it on her own.

Still stubborn and still independent.

Jack felt good that Astrid was returning to her former self. He hoped that he had some part in lifting up her mood, because there was simply no way that Hiccup and Astrid would remain in an argument for a pretty long time.

Jack walked Astrid home first, at what the girl only snorted and told him that she would manage to do it on her own. So similar to Hiccup. But Jack simply wanted to do it.

When they were almost partying their ways, Astrid bit her bottom lip first, like she was unsure whether she wanted to voice her thoughts out loud or not. But in the end the first option won the game.

“Jack.” She swallowed slowly. “I really meant it when I told you to write to me if you want to talk about your feelings. Honestly.” She huffed exasperatedly, brushing away the nagging, blonde fringe from her forehead. “And I won’t tell him about you, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

He didn’t expect it really, but it was welcomed nevertheless. It set a soft rhythm to the beating of his heart. Calming the waves and storm ripping through his chest.

It wasn’t okay, but it was fine… for now.

“And I won’t tell anyone about what happened between us today.” Jack nodded, feeling that he had to confirm it to her one more time.

“Thanks. See ya later then, Jack.”

“See you.”

She smirked at him, turned on her heel and walked to the door, not glancing back.

* * *

Hiccup felt miserable. No, no, he felt devastated. Lost, hollow, or maybe he felt sorrow with a gradient of anger. Definitely he felt angry at himself. Even furious. Because it really was his fault. He fucked up, simply as that. Yop, failed on the whole, long line. He choked on the opportunity given to him. And even though he knew it wasn’t wrong to be happy about talking with your crush, he simply felt bad that he overlooked the consequences of his actions. He was too enamored by Aster’s messages, that he pushed his friends away.

Almost forgot about them.

He was a terrible friend. Hiccup will be blessed if Astrid ever talks to him again. But this idea scared him the most. Was sending tons of blaring alarms and signals through his body, making him shiver in fear.

Right now, right now he was laying on his bed, hugging Toothless like he was the last life jacket on a falling down plane. At first the cat had tried to get away, but stopped when he had sensed that his owner was in distress.

And Hiccup was. And he needed every bit of connection he could get. And his cat was perfect here.

Toothless purred under Hiccup’s chin, finally reconciled with his fate as he rested his head on the teen’s chest.

Hiccup sighed heavily and grabbed his phone, brushing his finger on the screen. He wanted to make up with Astrid, but whenever he opened the tab to message her, the overwhelming fear took over his heart and fingers. Because he was simply afraid that she wouldn’t want to respond.

Hiccup was afraid of losing her over a minor thing as a stupid argument about stupid crush and Hiccup stupidly overlooking his friends.

Stupid, stupid, stupid…

He felt bad for acting like that. He knew he did wrong and he wanted to amend for that, but he didn’t know how.

The unanswered message from Aster was almost laughing at him right now, but Hiccup was in no mood to answer it anymore. Not right now, not at this hour, not today. And even though the butterflies were still there, the bigger fear was winning in this fight.

He felt… lost. Not knowing what to do in this situation.

He wouldn’t deny the prickling sensations in the corner of his eyes, but he couldn’t cry. Not right now.

Hiccup took a deep breath. His heart was beating fast, unnaturally fast inside his ribcage, making it almost painful. It was terrible, he wanted it all to end. He wanted the good old times to come back, when Aster had been still a person to admire from far away and Astrid had been still with him, teasing about his crush. The time when Hiccup and Jack had talked freely about important and not things, with no barriers. A time when conversations with Jack had made Hiccup feel secure, calm and fully himself.

He wanted to talk with Jack, to feel like his old self one more time.

His fingers quickly found the contact list, searching for the familiar ‘ _The Hottest Dude You Have Ever Se’_. Maybe in other situation he would think twice about his decisions, but right now he wanted to hear Jack’s voice.

The beeping started as he put the phone to his ear. One, two, three, fou-

“Hey Hiccup. What’s up? You rarely call me.” The same voice, chirpy, always happy, optimistic, warm, nice, comforting – everything that was the true epitomes of Jack – said from the other side.

And he felt his throat closing down. He tried to respond, to say something, to… he didn’t really know what he wanted from the call.

His hands trembled and he still didn’t answer Jack.

“Hiccup?” This time Jack sounded wary, unsure, and a little bit scared. “Everything’s okay?”

And of course he was instantly worrying over Hiccup. So typical, so Jack, so… needed right now.

Toothless nudged his chin and Hiccup found out that he was biting into his bottom lip for at least some time now.

“Hiccup? Talk to me.”

And somehow it destroyed the sudden blockade put on him by some kind of regulator inside his brain. The beeping alarms which had resonated until now with red lights inside his head, shut down as the exhaustion got to them, destroying whole mechanism in the process.

“Jack...” Hiccup sniffed, feeling his nose already getting full. His other hand reached for his eyes and took off his glasses.

“Hiccup? What’s wrong?!” Oh no. Hiccup made Jack scared. Knowing him he probably was terrified by the messy voice Hiccup just used.

“I think… I think Astrid hates me now.” He managed to choke out between sobs that suddenly jerked his body.

“What?” There was a small pause, maybe hesitation, or maybe Jack’s processor was only now comprehending the information given to it. “What happened?” The voice was way softer. “Wait, I’m coming over now.”

“No, no, Jack, you don’t have to.” But there was already sound of rummaging and shuffling on the other side. Hiccup didn’t want to invest Jack so much into the situation, he only wanted to hear his voice to help him regain his balance. “Jack, honestly.”

“Wait, I need to put my jeans on and I’m ready.” Jack grumbled from the other side and it looked like he put the phone between his shoulder and head and now was trying to put on his trousers.

“No, Jack take off your pants right now!” At least Hiccup’s voice wasn’t wavering as much. A glance to his side told him that it was already way too late. Almost near midnight. Great. “It’s too late for you to come out. Please. My Dad is sleeping and I don’t want to wake him up with you coming inside.”

There was a sudden silence on the other side, then Hiccup sniffed and the sound was followed by a groan.

“Okay, I’ll take my pants off. If you so gravely insist.”

Of course this was what Jack’s caught from the previous sentence. Stupid innuendos.

“Thanks.” Hiccup said hoarsely, brushing away the tears with the sleeve of his sweater. Or at least the remains of them. Huh?

“No problem, mi amigo. Now tell me what happened? Between you and Astrid.”

Hiccup smiled crookedly under his nose.

Something in the way Jack wanted to help Hiccup by coming over was endearing. Of course, it was kind of stupid, childish and probably totally impulsive, but it showed that Jack still cared for Hiccup. And even though the teen was moving himself further and further away from him, that part still remained the same.

They were still friends.

But Hiccup couldn’t help, but to wish for Jack to talk with him about what was bugging the taller teen lately.

Jack was helping everyone around him, was always there where you needed a shoulder to lean on, was always full of good things to say to lift someone’s spirit up.

But was someone there for him? Someone to whom Jack could turn when he was in need, someone who would listen to all his problems, not matter how minor or major they were, someone who could help him through dire times?

“Hiccup?”

Hiccup had to do something in return. He had to try, maybe harder than ever, because social relationships weren’t his thing. But maybe if he put a lot of strength in it, maybe if he hint something or maybe if he simply stay by his side, then Jack will tell Hiccup what was wrong.

“I was out with Astrid today and…”

But it all was only a theory filled with too many ‘maybes’. There wasn’t enough information to confirm it. There was even a big risk of losing. Maybe the chances of failing were even larger than the ones of succeeding.

But Jack had done so many things for Hiccup, that Hiccup wanted to try to repay the debt. Even if this meant getting out of his comfort zone.

It couldn’t be that bad, right?

 

**Bonus:**

Anyway, I'm happy to say we hit 200 kudos goal (even a little bit overboard)! Thank you all for being here with me!

And the sign says - 200 kudos goal =DDDD! Sorry for my terrible drawing skills D:!

 

**Author’s note:**

Some answers to comments, because I can't put them all in notes at the end:

blitz_lili – Huehue, it was supposed to feel like that (I’m glad you caught that)! Lately I thought that this fic started to get too fluffy, so it was time to turn on the angst volume. I really want to solve the mysteries, but you need to wait… probably a lot more. Sorry ;__;

Bisexualkid – Omg… I totally forgot about the New Year kiss… Shiet… xDDDDDDDD Thank you for pointing that out. And thank yoouuuu <3!

Toffyy – I like to hurt characters, I’m sorry ;___; Plus the fic started to get a little bit too cute, so it was time to put some drama in it! xD

poiuyt – Omg, this means a lot to me, like really! And I’m glad you’re curious xD! And about your question… No, it wasn’t, but then I started to read more about it and thought that it would be a good sub-plot. If you know more about it and want to help me and put it into the story, please comment under this chapter or send me an e-mail! This could be pretty good! Thank you <3!

zerberus42 – I love the beginning of your comment so much! xD Remind me of all my time when I simply had to see if there was an update of fics I love! And aww yeah, angst forever! I like to write all fluffy and cuddle moments, but I also adore breaking characters’ hearts and now it was time to break someone heart (omg, I feel terrible now D: ). But no worries – the fluffy times will come in the future!! I totally had to listen to that song – and gosh, it fit perfectly! Thank you for showing me it! and yeah… About New Year kiss… I forgot about it… Sorry ;__; But thank you!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg, finally done! This chapter took a lot of time, even though I had it finished long time ago. I’ll try to put the chapters more often from now on (the summer and the rest of the year quite complicated my schedule).
> 
> I also got a beta-reader! But unfortunately our plans couldn’t work together that well, so he only could check half of this chapter. But say hello to Gio! And thank for the hard work =D!
> 
> And anyway, nerd’s facts
> 
> *Liquid nitrogen – is nitrogen in a liquid state at an extremely low temperature. It is a colorless clear liquid with its boiling point −195.79 °C (77 K; −320 °F). Anyway it is pretty, pretty cold!
> 
> *Thicker than tar – tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. It is very dense substance.
> 
> *Sugar Rush – game from Wreck-It Ralph. I totally adore this movie!


	11. Fourier's law

**Fourier’s law** – the law of heat conduction – the rate of time heat transfers through a material is proportional to the negative gradient in the temperature and to the area.

 

Hiccup dreaded and anticipated this Monday morning. He was scared of it due to the confrontation that was about to happen in a few minutes. Because in just approximately four hundred and eighty seconds there was a chance that Astrid would step out of her house to go to school. Ughh, such limited time!

Hiccup chose this point, this specific span of time to catch up and apologize to her. Okay, maybe it wasn’t his plan per se, but it was the best that Jack could come up with, sooo... no! It had to work nonetheless.

So, he was sort of afraid of the consequences of their conversation. He was terrified of the outcome. But the fear wasn’t the biggest emotion at play here. It was the anticipation, the urge, the need to make up with his friend and return to the former state of friendship they shared. Or simply to create a better one.

Hiccup couldn’t understand those people who would and could stay mad at their friends or family for months at a time, or even longer. He wasn’t able to talk with Astrid for a day and a half and it was devastating. It truly was detrimental for him.

But at least he had Jack – who had spent the entire Sunday talking with him, coming up with plans on how to apologize to the girl and more over lifting Hiccup’s spirit up – and Aster, with whom he still talked to, but not as much as he had done during the previous days. Maybe it was the guilt still being there, inside his mind, or maybe because there were more important matters to deal with.

Astrid is the most important thing right now. Way more important than his dumb crush.

Hiccup counted the seconds down in his head, and when he got to the last hundred, his heart sped up. His brain delved into tons of calculations, running diagnostics, foreseeing all future possibilities, scenarios and outcomes. His imagination was overworking, suddenly giving him only the bad options to feed upon. Damn his mind. Hiccup knew he was a pessimistic guy, but maybe this time…

The front door of Astrid’s house swung open, abruptly cutting Hiccup’s deep state of though (it kinda saved him actually, from having a nervous breakdown, if not a mental one). The girl emerged through the doorframe, shouting to her parents; announcing that she was going out.

Damn it, she came out earlier than what Hiccup had foreseen and precisely calculated. She went out twenty seven seconds before the usual and designated time. But no, Hiccup had it covered. This small change in his plan wouldn’t make a difference to him, not even by a micrometer!

Astrid closed the door and stepped down the stairs onto the pavement. With her hand she reached for her phone, always laying inside her pocket, but stopped midway and shook her head.

This was his chance, his redemption arc gloriously displayed and given to him by the Gods above.

“Astrid!” Hiccup shouted, jumping out from the bushes like some kind of psycho, or worse. Okay, maybe this part of Jack-co-Hiccup’s plan was dumb, but well, it already happened. No need to cry over spilled milk now.

Plus, the startled look on Astrid’s face was worth it. Maybe it would be more worth it, if the girl didn’t suddenly swing her fist back with the intention to punch.

Okay, this was a bad plan. Red Alert! Raise shields, take evasive action. Retreat, retreat!

“Astrid, no!” Hiccup covered his face with his arms. He had seen Astrid in action, only he never expected to be on the receiving end of her fist. How the world works is still a mystery to him.

Yet the hit never came, gladly. Okay, lower shields. Status report – no breaches have been detected.

“Hiccup?! Fuck, you scared me. The hell are you doing here!?” Her voice didn’t hold any hint of anger, only bewilderment, maybe even with a few percent of tension lingering in the last tone.

“I scared you!? You freaked me out here! I thought I was going to die!” Hiccup countered, putting his hands down and sighing in relief.

“Me? You started it.” Astrid huffed, pointing at him with an accusing finger, almost drilling it into his chest. “I could hit you! I was about to!”

“I know, I just almost escaped death two seconds ago!” He retorted, now even louder, but his voice was still nothing in comparison to the girl’s own.

“So why did you do that?” Astrid finally asked, looking right into his eyes.

Oh, the moment he dreaded. The main center of the plan, the very epitome of this day and this whole weekend.

Hiccup opened his mouth and closed it. He had replayed this figurative conversation over and over in his head, he had this scenario planned out and even though that there was a possibility of Astrid attacking him, Hiccup had pushed it at the almost last place. But here he was.

However he got it. He practiced it. He rehearsed it. There was nothing to worry about. No matter what different things his inner voices were telling him. Hiccup pushed those voices away. He muted the sounds that they were mumbling, until they were only miniscule vibrating whispers at the back of his neck.

No, he wanted to do it. He only needed some foothold.

With one tug, he took off his backpack and rummaged through it, sticking his tongue out. His hand maneuvered around notebooks, pencils, pens and loose sheets, only to grab the slick package which found its way at the very bottom. He took it out and pushed it into Astrid’s chest. And yes, unfortunately, he did close his eyes, afraid of the reaction of his hoped-to-still-be friend.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry!” Hiccup said quickly. “I… I’m like... I acted like a jerk towards you. You asked me out and I spent the entire afternoon on my phone. It was my fault.” He continued, taking small breaks to take in a little bit of oxygen into his lungs.

There was a movement near his hands, on her chest, where he was still pushing the package – a present, a small form of apology – into Astrid. Her hands brushed Hiccup’s own gloved ones as she retrieved the package.

It wasn’t much really, it was only a bar of chocolate in the end. But it was Astrid’s favorite. White choco with strawberry yoghurt. A very rare one, which they only had seen maybe six times in normal shops.

Hiccup really had luck to find it, and only after visiting a fourth fresh market. The Gods were indeed merciful to him in this situation.

He waited, still with closed eyes, for the reaction – maybe some kind of sound, sentence, movement, anything that could tell him the secrets of Astrid’s true feelings. The good and bad thoughts mixed inside his brain, fought for dominance, but there wasn’t a winner in sight yet. Because only the girl could pick one.

Then there was a soft nudge to his shoulder, like a small, hesitant punch with only a hint of strength it could have had (considering the ‘nudge’ came from Astrid). But it felt familiar, warm, exothermic, lively and above all simply… simply amazing.

Hiccup opened his eyes, only to stare at the soft smile of his friend. Best-friend – a little bit edgy on the side, sometimes maybe too harsh to other people, a person with an iron, heavy fist, but with an even bigger heart….

Then all voices inside his head became silent.

Astrid looked down at the chocolate bar in her hands and maybe, just maybe, her smile grew a little bit bigger.

“I’m sorry too.” She finally mumbled, pushing a lone lock of her hair behind her ear. “I overreacted too.”

“No, no!” Hiccup quickly lifted his hands, waving them frantically. Astrid shouldn’t be the one apologizing. She had a reason to be mad at him, he was the one who had messed up in this situation. “I’m the one at fault here. I… I guess I simply was too happy about the idea of Aster responding to my lame messages that I overlooked everything else in my life. Including you. Which shouldn’t happen at all.” His hand travelled to his nape, where it stayed for a second, scratching the skin beneath his hair. Shit, the stress was still hanging tightly onto his nerves – like the dendrites absorbed it.

“Yeah, it kind of sucked.” Astrid confirmed, with no anger or resentment hanging at the last syllable.

It was good to hear her voice, to see that she wasn’t as mad as Hiccup initially had thought. Or maybe she had been furious, but the negative emotions had decanted at the very bottom of her mind with time?

“So, yeah, sorry about that. I promise to not ignore you this way anymore.” Hiccup crossed his heart, really meaning it.

Astrid had given him a fright two days ago and Hiccup didn’t want a repeat of it like ever again. Never. This day and a half of not being able to talk freely with his best-friend was the worst moment of his High School life.

“Apology accepted.” Astrid said, smiling and stepping away. “Now get out from those bushes, ‘cause we still need to get to school and well… now we may be a little late.”

 _Because of you_ , floated silently between them in zero gravity. Astrid knew Hiccup hated to be late, especially to school, but now… right now he didn’t mind.

“I don’t care. I’m glad even.” Hiccup said, grinning to himself and getting out from the bushes behind which he had been hiding.

Astrid snorted and with free hand brushed away the snow and few leaves which found its miraculous way into his clothes.

Hiccup wouldn’t mind if he lost a whole day at school. He wouldn’t mind a lot of things, if this meant reconciling with Astrid. It wasn’t like he would be all okay with going out of his comfort zone. But for her, Hiccup would try to do so, he would try desperately to get out and make things right.

He would be terrified, of course, but there are more important things in his life. Astrid was worth it.

* * *

_He really did :o?_

_Yup, he was a mess_

_because of you, you_

_meanie (_ _｡_ _•_ _́_ _︿_ _•_ _̀_ _｡_ _)_

_I didn’t mean to D:!_

Jack smiled to himself as he stared at the message on his phone.

_I know you didn’t (_ _￣_ _ω_ _￣_ _;)_

And sent! Jack felt quite good with himself, because of that. He felt like they were sharing a secret – a hidden conspiracy between him and Astrid. And maybe, in the end, it was true.

Jack put the phone down and looked at the two lilacs still standing near the heater in his room. They were there since the day Hiccup had brought them. Wall, kind of not. Jack had taken them to the garage one day, but had brought them back fast. Not because it was cold there, but because simply he got used to their presence. He knew it was weird. Some people maybe would take him as a person out of his mind, a lunatic, but Jack really felt like every tree, every plant, every flower had its own soul. And Jack simply got easily attached to some of his friends. Few flowers and bushes in his back yard even had names. And these two lilacs were no exception.

It had taken him an hour or so of loneliness in his room to bring them back again.

The names had slipped past his lips one night when he had been talking about himself with them. The bigger one, with more leaves still hanging onto his branches was named Thorin* – because come on, Jack admired him. He was strong and caring and he was sure that the lilac will be too. And the smaller one, with only two or three leaves was given a name of Galadriel* - because Jack knew it will grow up to be a strong and beautiful tree. It just needed some time.

So now, unfortunately or not, he got even more attached to the siblings standing near the heater. The fictional characters weren’t related, but Jack decided to not care about such trivial things. The names fitted and it was important.

His phone buzzed and Jack quickly read the reply.

_But he apologized to me, so now everything’s cool =D._

_Was it your idea for him to hide in the bushes?_

Jack snorted under his nose and tapped a response.

_Yeah. Don’t tell me he pulled that of? ∑(_ _ﾟﾛﾟ〃_ _)_

_Uh-huh. He did. And got almost punched by me .___._

Oooops, that wasn’t scripted. But, to be honest, Jack didn’t expect Hiccup to actually do that, so Astrid’s surprise definitely had to be hilarious. Oh shame that he wasn’t able to see it.

But it all did the trick. Astrid and Hiccup weren’t in the argument anymore and Jack really preferred them to be this way.

Hiccup calling him while crying really did a number on Jack’s heart – not in the nice way. And after Hiccup had explained the situation, the burden had evaporated away to this point that Jack had tried not once or twice, but multiple times to not snort at the situation. They had gotten into an argument and wanted to make amends few minutes later.

It was sweet, endearing how they both couldn’t live without each other.

But no matter how much Jack had been tempted to simply tell his fake-boyfriend that Astrid wasn’t mad at him anymore (or more even at herself now), he had stood strongly. He had promised Astrid this.

But it all turned okay in the end. Maybe a little bit more than okay. Jack had started to talk with the girl a little bit through messages. At first, when Astrid had proposed Jack to write to her whenever he was feeling down or had problems with his feelings for Hiccup, he had thought that it would, maybe not never, but rarely happen. Huh boy, was he wrong.

_Sorry, not sorry >:3!_

_Uh-huh, yeah, riiight xD. By the way_

_did he tell you that he was messaging Aster?_

_I’m simply curious…_

_Yeah, he did._

Hiccup could probably hide the fact that he had been speaking with Bunny, but he hadn’t. Gladly.

But back when Hiccup had been explaining the situation to Jack, there had been a sudden pause, a slice of time filled with withered silence only for Hiccup to continue his story about him messaging Aster instead of spending time with Astrid.

Jack felt really glad that Hiccup had decided to tell the truth. And even though he had already knew that he had been talking with him, his heart still had made this weird squeezing backflip inside his chest. Jack should probably get used to it.

Maybe with time…

Or visit cardiologist in case he was actually dying.

_Did he add something more ):?_

_No, I don’t think so._

Jack wrote this sentence and sent it, but then quickly added an emoji to show that he was still okay. He didn’t want Astrid to think she was some moppy love-struck teenager. Even though he kind of was. But talking with Astrid really was helping him. Who would expect it? Definitely not Jack. It was a nice surprise given to him by life.

_Ouch :C_

Jack actually snorted under his nose at this message. It was weird seeing Astrid actually root for him. Well, at least Jack had a feeling she was rooting for him. And it was nice, pretty darn nice of her even, but well… Jack had definitely small, tiny chances of Hiccup reciprocating his feelings. Especially now, when Hiccup was speaking so freely with his crush.

Jack sighed and lifted his head at the two lilacs huddled together.

“I feel like my chances have negative delta.” He said to the trees.

And somewhere, in the back of his mind, he could almost see them glancing skeptically at him, maybe even asking what the heck was he babbling about.

“Oh you know.” Jack started, tilting his head. “If the chance of me being with Hiccup could be in form of some square equation, then definitely the delta of this equation would be negative.”

And even though neither Thorin nor Galadriel made a movement, in Jack’s brain they were rolling their eyes at his ideas.

Maybe it was stupid or childish or dumb or foolish or all similar adverbs, but well, Jack preferred to have negative chances than have no chances at all.

It was always better to solve the equation and get a negative delta than leave an empty place under the exercise. Even though the answer was wrong and impossible. Just like Jack. At least there would be traces of trying instead of not trying at all and giving up. Even when the results were wrong.

“I think Hiccup’s nerd’s side has influenced me too much.” Jack said, reaching and brushing his fingers on the thin trunk of Galadriel.

Her branches swayed, like she was agreeing with him.

Jack’s phone vibrated, announcing new message. With the same hand he grabbed it and looked at Astrid’s name blinking warmly at him.

_How about Aster?_

She hit right on the spot actually. Bunny still didn’t really tell Jack that he was speaking with Hiccup. And well, it was okay to not share everything, Aster didn’t have to tell Jack that he was writing with Hiccup, but…

It would be nice to know. Aster knew that Jack and Hiccup were just pretending, so there was nothing wrong in talking with Hiccup without Jack knowing it, but… But Jack still felt a little bit left out, maybe even betrayed.

“Why did friendship suddenly become so difficult…?” Jack mumbled, looking up at Thorin standing proudly next to his sister.

Jack never had these kind of problems with his close friends and nowadays his whole world was turned upside down. Like someone just flipped a switch which sent him to an alternate dimension where everything he knew was steady here, there was not.

He knew friendship wasn’t something easy to gain. Jack was conscious of the fact that friendship sometimes was a hard work, was tiring, but he would do everything to help his best friends. He would give everything and more to make it all normal again.

But he had a feeling that this normalness disappeared long time ago, broke away from them or maybe was taken away, kidnapped and hidden from their world and sight.

At this point Jack had a feeling that the same world they had shared, the same relationship couldn’t be brought back. That it was already gone without chances of getting it back.

However Jack didn’t know where or when it had disappeared. Maybe it wasn’t a sudden situation, maybe it was slowly corroding inside their hearts to finally fully dissipate in the solution?

It was a possibility, maybe it was even the truth, but Jack wouldn’t simply give up on this. He would dig up the truth, even if he had to do it with his own hands. Because Aster was his friend and Jack had leaned on him too many times in the past to count, so Jack wanted to do something in return too.

If only Bunny would let him in.

However Jack didn’t have to do it alone. He wasn’t alone in this world. He had Tooth. With whom he didn’t actually talk much about Aster lately. Maybe he should change it. Tooth was also a close friend of Bunny. Maybe he shared something with her, he didn’t with Jack.

Yeah, this was a good start.

* * *

“Hiccup, do you mind waiting a second for me.”

Hiccup lifted his face from the backpack he was currently packing to look into the blue eyes of his Professor.

“Sure, I don’t mind.” He nodded and finished packing.

Professor Robinson – who taught physics and science of mechanics – was one of Hiccup’s favourite teachers. He was sort of a little bit crazy on the side, but not in the bad way. He just loved what he was doing and it was pretty visible.

He waited for all the students from Mechanic class to leave the hall and only when there was only the two of them left, Hiccup approached the wooden, half-destroyed desk at the front.

“So, what do you want to talk with me about, Professor?” Hiccup asked, correcting the hold of the backpack on his shoulder.

Professor Robinson turned from the blackboard, where he had drawn some type of metal connection for students.

“Ah, right!” He said, smiling broadly and clapping his hands together to get rid of the calcium carbonate residing on his skin. In the end he also brushed it on his dirty lab coat. “I wanted to talk with you about the Robotic Contest.”

Oh, yeah, that… February was around the corner and he had nothing but blueprints to show. Shit, this didn’t sound good. But Hiccup had told his Professor that he wasn’t feeling so good in this field. He hadn’t been really keen on participating in this contest, but Professor Robinson’s pleading eyes had made him agree.

It was quite different from the Physics’ Olympiad he had won some time ago.

“Yes?” Hiccup said, feeling his mouth getting dry. Oh god, he hoped the teacher wouldn’t ask about where he was standing with his project, because Hiccup had a feeling he was currently being buried in his own grave. And Hiccup didn’t want to disappoint his favourite teacher.

“I know you said that robotic is not your field of passion, so I know that it must be hard for you to fully get into it.” The man said, brushing his unruly blonde locks away from his forehead. “I can assume it’s not going so well, right…?”

Hiccup nodded, hanging his head down, not wanting to look into sad eyes of his Professor.

“Uhm…” What was else here to say than the truth? “Yeah…”

“Don’t feel down! The important fact is that you’re trying!” The man voice was chirpy, joyful and reassuring. It was accompanied by a soft pat on Hiccup’s shoulder. “And as I can’t help you, I asked the other participant to look at your blueprints. I hope you’re not mad.”

Other participant? Hiccup had no idea about whom the man was talking about, but well… maybe because Hiccup simply never was so interested in it.

“I also asked him to help you with some tweaks here and there.” This time Hiccup did lift up his head to look at the teacher.

“Isn’t it like… against the rules?” He asked, lifting his eyebrow.

“No, if you do all the work. I only asked him if he can give you few advices of where to buy parts and how to connect them.” Mister Robinson said, correcting his square glasses and smiling at him.

Oh, this actually would be pretty neat, because, to be honest, Hiccup had no idea from where he should start with this project.

“It’s not bad to learn from others.” Professor added, after Hiccup didn’t quite answer him.

Of course, it wasn’t bad to learn from others. That’s why teachers were here. Hiccup had nothing against learning from others. He had something against learning from others whom he didn’t know, which meant meeting new people. Oh, joy.

The auburn haired boy swallowed and looked back at his teacher, who was looking at him with such proud and radiating smile that Hiccup felt he could get blind any second now. He didn’t remember drinking any methanol really.

So even though his stomach made an uncomfortable flip and squeeze, Hiccup nodded and mumbled.

“Okay…”

“Great!” The blond haired teacher clasped his hands together. The sound of it echoed loudly in the empty hall. “He will come here after classes today. Do you have some free time then or do you have other labs?”

Hiccup quickly searched in his mind for any other plans he could have for today afternoon and found none. The fact which he didn’t know whether was good or bad actually.

“No, I’m free.” Hiccup said, trying to sound not too devastated in front of the Professor. The man looked totally enamored about the idea of someone helping Hiccup with his project. Just what exactly Professor saw in those blueprints that Hiccup couldn’t? It felt like he had more hopes in it than the owner and creator of it did.

“Great, see you later then. Now shush, don’t be late to the next class because of me.” Professor Robinson clasped his hands together one more time and beamed at him like sun.

Augh, Hiccup’s eyes suddenly hurt. Seriously, was he sending some kind of radiant energy by those eyes? Knowing his teacher love for science, it wouldn’t surprise him if that was the truth actually.

* * *

Okay, after few hours it was still a bad idea. Hiccup really disliked meeting new people. He never knew what to say, his hands quickly were becoming sweaty and he was turning into a stuttering mess with the overwhelming coldness roaming around his body.

Yop, he had his small circle of friends and didn’t feel a need to meet new ones. But there was a chance that this wouldn’t be someone new. It definitely was someone from this school, so Hiccup had to see her or him on the corridor at least once. However he had bad memory of faces and names… but maybe this particular face would light up some bulb inside the library of his memories. Probably, maybe? There was a possibility of this happening?

Nevermind, he was already standing in front of the door for at least fifteen minutes now.

Okay, maybe sixteen even.

Hiccup put his hand on his chest and took a deep breath. Calm down, everything was going to be okay.

His pocket vibrated and he took out his phone. Two new messages. From two different people.

_I’m sure it’s someone nice_

_so, no stress! (_ _｡_ _•_ _̀ᴗ-)_ _✧_

Hiccup grinned hesitantly to himself. Jack was always so supportive. Even when he wasn’t responding as much as he did, it was still welcomed nevertheless.

Second message was from Aster, from actually… two hours ago.

After the whole fiasco with Astrid, Hiccup was controlling himself in terms of responding. Well, he still was messaging a lot with Aster in his own house, but at school and around Astrid he tried really hard to focus on her and not on him.

_I unfortunately don’t know about whom_

_Professor could be talking about. Sorry._

At this Hiccup sighed. Even Aster didn’t know whom Hiccup could meet. He did propose few ideas, but they weren’t that possible really.

So it was a surprise. Hiccup didn’t really like that kind of surprises.

Eighteen minutes now. Great. He had to do it in the end.

After counting to ten in his head and taking few more deep breaths, Hiccup finally knocked on the door to the hall which he had visited few hours ago.

“Come in!” Said the enthusiastic voice of this teacher from the inside.

Okay… Hiccup got it. There was nothing to worry about. He got better in meeting new people. Gosh, he even accidentally had gotten into a fake-relationship with Jack – this counts as meeting new people. Quite bizarrely, but still.

Hiccup pushed the door, groaning under his breath at the weight he had to push.

There was Professor Robinson, leaning above his desk where a lot of pages filled with scribbles were scattered on the surface. His glasses were hanging barely at the end of his nose, but when Hiccup entered the hall, the man lifted his head so fast, that the glasses returned to their rightful place.

“Ah, Hiccup! So glad you could make it!” The blonde haired male started, but Hiccup couldn’t heart the half of the things the teacher was babbling about. Because his eyes were directed at the person on the opposite side of Professor Robinson’s desk. The same person that was supposed to give him some advices, help a little with his project.

Why, oh why? Hiccup had to be someone really bad in previous lives for the fate to kick him so hard in his ass! If reincarnation was even possible, that is. But if it was, then he definitely fucked up in his past lives. Really hard.

“-I’m sure you already know each other. This school isn’t that big in the end-” A laugh left the male’s lips, as he circled the desk and stopped in front of it.

Yeah, this school wasn’t that big, that’s why in Hiccup’s mind there was a possibility of meeting a familiar face. Although this face was familiar, but not welcomed.

His frozen limbs and hammering heart were agreeing with him.

“-however, if you’re not acquaintances, I’m very happy, Hiccup, to introduce you to Dagur!” Professor finished, smiling broadly while pointing at the teen who still was bending over the desk, but with his face directed at Hiccup.

If anything was good in this situation, it was the bewilderment clearly emanating from Dagur’s face. It was the only good thing Hiccup could find in this situation. Other than that, he wanted to run away from here as far away as possible. Or disappear. He could dug up his grave in this very place and there wouldn’t be difference in between that and stepping forward.

Dagur blinked and then shook his head.

“Yeah, we know each other.” He said in the same nasal, harsh voice Hiccup remembered so well.

Please, kill him.

The atmosphere around them was dense, like the room was suddenly filled with liquid and not gas. It was morbid even – freezing cold and tense. Hiccup felt his hands shaking with sweat already forming on the insides. His breath was coming out in small, short gasps.

And Dagur was still looking at him with sudden curiosity beaming in those dark eyes. Since the moment Hiccup had stepped inside, he didn’t turn around. It was unnerving.

However it looked like the tension, the atmosphere of incertitude didn’t faze the Professor as he moved to Hiccup, put his hand on his back and walked together back to the desk.

Hiccup felt like he had to learn how to walk from the very beginning. What was he supposed to do again? Ah yes, bend knee, move your feet, put it down, repeated with the other.

Oh, he was already near the desk.

“That’s good!” Professor Robinson said, leaving Hiccup standing one meter away from Dagur. Too close for comfort, definitely too close. “No need for more introduction. Ah, sorry for the mess. Me and Dagur were just talking about his project for the contest.”

At this Dagur finally turned away and fixed his eyes on the messy blueprints smeared all over the desk. He lifted his hands and slowly started to gather the papers.

Hiccup stared with hitched breath as the teen’s fingers moved around the surface, lifting and stocking small piles. His brain was a mushy mess, working slower and slower with every passing second he had to spend here. Maybe because of that the information he had heard only got registered now.

“Project?” Hiccup parroted, turning to the blonde haired Professor who, unsurprisingly, was still talking excitedly about something.

The male stopped his lecture about something and turned to Hiccup with passion glinting in his eyes.

“Yes, Dagur here is the second participant from our school.”

Wait, what? Dagur? Dagur, of all people, took part in Robotic Contest? The same Dagur who drank every weekend with his friends? The same Dagur who shoved and fought people who just glanced at him the wrong way? The same Dagur who had been almost sexually harassing him two months ago?

This couldn’t be true. It was just too… unfitting.

“Oh…” Hiccup mumbled at a loss of words or any rational ideas.

“And his project is really good! He should show you the blueprints, of course, if he ever wants!”

Dagur made some incoherent noise under his nose. Hiccup tensed at that, but Professor Robinson only waved his hand.

“Yeah, yeah, of course. It’s up to you, I’m not pushing you to do it, don’t worry.” He said, smiling at the teen who finally gathered all pages and hid them in a worn out white folder.

Hiccup observed their exchange, trying to relax his frozen in place (and time) limbs. One, two, three, one, two, three. He wouldn’t be able to do anything, if his body was solid. He had to relax.

Running away with frozen legs didn’t work too, so that was the main reason here actually.

“You can work here today boys.” The teacher said, reaching under his desk and taking out familiar pages of Hiccup’s project. “I need to grade some last week’s tests, so I’ll be in my office. Shout if you need anything.”

It could be worse. Hiccup really knew it could. Professor Robinson could ask them to go somewhere else where he would be forced to sit alone with Dagur of all people. So being in the quite big hall, with the teacher sitting in the office behind the wall should be quite comforting idea about forcibly spending time with Dagur.

Hiccup knew it could be much worse, but it didn’t mean he was totally content with what he had.

He observed his teacher’s form as he moved to the opened door to his office. He prayed in his mind for the man to reconsider and for him to stay with them, but Professor Robinson only turned around, showed them a thumbs-up and then… then he disappeared in the room.

Okay, okay, Hiccup can somehow live with it. Somehow. He didn’t know how, but he needed to find a way quick.

If something happens, then he can still shout for help, so that was awfully nice. However he preferred to not actually be pushed to his limits. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad?

What was he babbling about? Of course, it couldn’t be that good! He was doomed. Hiccup should already write his testament. Okay, most of this things could be given to Astrid. Fishlegs definitely would want his science related things. Maybe he should leave his laptop for Snotlout (he was always complaining about the one he currently had). And twins… twins could have… Hiccup didn’t know what kind of things could interest them.

“So did you already start building it or…”

“What?”

Dagur was looking at him with one hand touching the desk. His fingers tapped some unsteady rhythm.

And he did say something. But what it was? Hiccup got lost in the list of things he had to give away after his death to hear when the teen had said.

“Umm…” Hiccup mumbled, rising his head and staring at the ceiling.

Was he already making threats? No, it didn’t look like that. Since entering, Dagur made no movement toward Hiccup, however that could be because the teacher was in the room with them.

“So did you buy parts for it at least?” Dagur asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

Oh, for the project. He was talking about Hiccup’s project. With this Hiccup could deal. About this he could talk. Only this and nothing else.

“No.” Hiccup started, only to quickly correct himself, when his brain finally caught up with the whole situation. “I mean some of them I bought already, but to be honest I’m not that good in it…” He massaged his shoulder, looking to the side. Everywhere but at Dagur.

He knew it wasn’t nice, but simply… he couldn’t look at him.

The taller teen hummed under his nose and mumbled something, which Hiccup didn’t catch. He wasn’t keen on asking for repeat.

Dagur moved and Hiccup jumped in place. The teen either didn’t notice it or did, but said nothing, as he circled the desk and grabbed the other folder. Then he took out the copies of blueprints of Hiccup’s project he had given Professor Robinson. He spread the pages over the surface.

“Point to me which parts did you buy or from where you wanted to start…”

Oh boy. There was no turning back now, was it? No, definitely not.

Slowly Hiccup took off his backpack and put it on the floor near the desk. He stepped closer, but not close enough to be at arm reach of Dagur’s hand, and glanced at the familiar scribbles and lines of his own drawing.

“Uhm, I think I wanted to start from here…”

* * *

“And she said that her sweater had too bright colors and I was like nu-huh I think it was swell like that! Can you believe her!? Pink goes good with gray, everyone knows that!”

Jack wasn’t sure whether everyone knew that pink and gray were a good combination, but he did now.

“Yeah, totally.” Not really. Even though Jack didn’t understand half of the things Tooth was telling him, it was still nice to hear her acting so chirpy and lively.

“But the other girl thanked me for putting the first one in place and well, it was really nice.” Tooth finished the story with a sip of a coffee from the cup.

“That’s good. I’m sure the other girl just hates pink.” Jack added.

“Probably. I don’t know why pink is such hated color. It is so nice and gives your clothes a smudge of live. Gosh, I love pink!” She shouted the last part, making a movement with her hand, like she wanted to throw it in the air, but quickly stopped. “Darn, almost spilled the coffee.” Oh, that’s why.

Jack smiled under his nose, but hid it quickly behind his own cup.

“Personally, I prefer blue, but pink is okay too.” He said, putting his cup down, but still holding it between his palms.

“Well mine fav is yellow, but pink is radical too!”

Jack wouldn’t call pink radical, but well he did like pink. Usually on flowers, not on clothes.

They were sitting in Jack’s room for at least an hour and a half now. Yesterday Jack had written to Tooth on Facebook, asking if she can come over to talk. Of course, after that she had immediately asked if something was wrong with Jack. Well, not with Jack, but he had wanted to ask few things.

After the story was told, Tooth calmed down, slumped down on the bed and took few sips of the probably now cold beverage inside her palms. Her eyes stared at the wall, but it didn’t look like she was thinking about anything in particular. It looked like the silence that enveloped them wasn’t fazing her either.

It was nice, really. For Jack to feel like nothing changed, even though it wasn’t the truth. But Tooth was always a human lighthouse in his live, radiating warm light in dark times. A place where he could be safe.

“So okay, I said what I wanted to say, so now it’s your turn. What is happening?”

And straightforward, but only with her close ones.

“Don’t you think Aster is acting weird lately?” Jack asked, crossing his legs and resting his cup on his ankles.

Tooth fidgeted and furrowed her eyebrows. The coffee that was in the journey to her mouth stopped.

“Maybe. But I don’t think he act so different around me, when we’re alone actually.” Well, that wasn’t very reassuring to be honest. So he only had been acting different around Jack. Great. That actually kind of hurt. “But yeah… I do think he is acting a little bit off nowadays.”

However Tooth also noticed this. This was good. So this meant that Jack wasn’t delusional and wasn’t reading too much into it. So that was making four people now who noticed it.

“I think has been happening for some time by now.” Jack confessed.

Tooth blinked and turned to him with wider eyes than usual.

“What do you mean?”

So Jack told her about all the pieces he had gathered since he had started noticing their friends acting different. It wasn’t unnatural long story, but it took Jack few minutes to collect his thoughts, segregate things he should and should not say and fill Tooth in on the subject from his point of view.

Tooth listened intently. She was staring back at him with cunning eyes, barely lifting the cup to her pink lips. Her usually bright face was now shadowed by dark thoughts and possibilities swirling around and above their heads like vultures.

He spoke about his failed attempt for a date, about Aster’s father, about Bunny being unnatural quiet during Sinbad’s party and about finding out that his friend was messaging Hiccup. He only left for himself the matter of Astrid, because walls had ears and Jack was keen on living some more, thank you very much.

“And lately, when we are together it is so…” Jack made a weird, crooked circle with his hand. “So awkward. Like… I don’t know. It’s like back when we first started hanging out and we still didn’t know what to talk about.”

The rainbow haired girl hummed in approval, looking down at the navy quilt filled with constellations pattern beneath them.

“Yeah, it’s really weird.” She finally murmured after few seconds of silence. “But it sounds to me like it revolves a lot around you.”

“That’s what I thought. At first I even suspected he was mad at me for something I did, but I don’t know what I could have done to anger him. Plus he isn’t the type-“

“To get easily angry. Yop, this is our Aster.” Tooth nodded, with tiny smile gracing her lips.

 _Our Aster_ still sounded nice inside Jack’s ears. Like nothing changed. And maybe for Tooth it didn’t change at all. Maybe it was only a disruption in their story, a small wave of a timeline.

“My first assumption is that he is stressed over exams.” Tooth said, lifting her body a little (because she slumped down quite far during the story). “I mean, you know how he is. He cares about grades, unfortunately.” She shrugged, pushing the violet lock of her hair behind her ear.

“But exams are almost whole semester away.” Jack lifted his eyebrow.

“Well, he has ambitions to get into difficult Uni, so you know…” The girl smiled sheepishly, tilting her head while looking back at him.

“Gee, you wound me.” He snorted, rolling his eyes.

“I just reminded you about it.” She quickly retorted. “Coming to this, you should also think-“

“Going back to Aster’s topic!” Jack didn’t want to think about his future right now. Nu-huh, not now. Maybe not today. Maybe not during this week. He would prefer to not think about his future at all, but that was unfortunately impossible.

“Right…” Tooth put the cup away on the nightstand. “So being stressed over exams is my one option. Second is that something happened, outside our circle. Maybe he argued with some other friends or I don’t know…” She looked up and licked her lips. “It’s just a possibility. I doubt something happened in his house, because his father definitely would tell us about it.”

“So we can scratch that.” Jack said, leaning back and putting his own cup on the floor. He had to remember to pick it up later and not leave it there for two days. It had happened once in the past, but gladly only once.

“And the third option is you – Jack.” Tooth said, looking back into his eyes. There was no accusation or nothing like that in her gaze. It was even a sad look, filled with concern for him, but it still made Jack want to shiver.

He expected the possibility, of course, but it still wasn’t very nice to hear it.

“Only I don’t know what I could have done.” He sighed, putting his hands behind his back and leaning on them.

“Me neither.” Tooth nodded to herself. “I mean, you’re the usual self. The only thing that changed is that you started to fake-date Hiccup and that Heather left you more over alone.”

Jack groaned in his own weird way of confirmation of his friend’s words. Indeed he wasn’t acting different lately. Well, he had been spending much more time with Hiccup than earlier – duh, because they hadn’t known each other and then Hiccup had proposed to help him with studying. Maybe Aster was mad because Hiccup and not he was helping Jack? No, definitely it wasn’t about this. Bunny always got way too frustrated while teaching Jack. Then maybe about Heather? But it made no sense. From what Jack knew, Aster maybe not hated the black haired girl, but clearly disliked her. Then what…

Hiccup?

But why?

Jack furrowed his eyebrows, but his line of thoughts was cut by Tooth’s voice.

“Maybe it’s not about what you did, but it’s simply because of _you_?” She asked, hesitantly, not looking at him.

“Me?” Jack parroted. “What about me?”

Tooth lifted her hand and waved it - bracelets fell down, clattering against each other, like rocks on the waterfall. Even the light reflected on the metal looked like splashed drops. After that the girl lifted her hand further with pointing finger sticking out and started to paint some weird patter in the air.

“It’s hard to describe.” She murmured, hand still stretched out. Jack looked at what she was pointing. Snowflakes hanging near the ceiling, now swaying softly due to the tilted window. Now it kind of seemed like she was tracing their circling movement. “I mean, no offence or anything like that. But maybe Aster isn’t troubled by anything you did, but simply by you.”

Yeah, that made even less sense to Jack. Him – like as a person, as an image, as Aster’s best-friend? About what aspect of Jack was Tooth talking about? If she even knew about which part was she talking about in the end.

Jack crossed his hands and lifted one eyebrow.

“Didn’t you read too many psychology books lately?” He asked, just to be sure. Books had a giant influence on some parts of people’s life. They make you realize signification of some facts and get you to think over and over about the reality. But you can’t also believe you read and let books block your own working mind.

However, Jack knew the great power of books and how they can change your character after reading.

Tooth blushed. Her hand twitched and stopped in the middle of the air.

“Maybe…” She admitted, but then cleared her throat. “But you can’t deny that there might be something to it, don’t you?”

Jack, unfortunately, couldn’t deny it. He couldn’t deny the possibilities of that being the answer to the question simply because he didn’t understand it. It was an unknown, but Jack couldn’t be afraid of it, even though _the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of unknown*._ Wait, Jack felt like he read that somewhere before…

He finally sighed.

“Maybe you’re right.”

“Well, think about it as a possibility.” Tooth said, shrugging and showing him a line of pearly white, perfect teeth. Then the sharp, focused façade returned to her face. “But I’ll try to ask him about it. Not like directly, but with my feminine charm maybe I’ll be able to get the truth out of him.” She added, smiling softly at the end, reassuringly even.

Jack grinned back at her.

“That will be a great help.”

She waved her hand in front of herself.

“He is also my close friend. If something is really troubling him, then I want to help too. Don’t leave me out of the equation.”

He rolled his eyes, hearing the last part. Seriously. Why Jack suddenly felt like he was only hanging around nerds, but of different types?

“You sound just like Hiccup, with his weird scientific comparisons.” He noticed.

The girl chuckled at that. Tooth’s laugh was always warm, a little bit hesitant, but filled with positive emotions. Just like the whole girl. She was always the one who was seeing a light of hope in a dark tunnel. Jack always admired her for finding something good in every bad thing, for being able to fish out the happy thoughts from the sea of indifference and negativity and for simply trying to remain strong and joyful when times weren’t good.

“We are people of science!” She said, pumping her fist into the air. “Besides, you aren’t better. We should record you when you talk about your garden sometimes. Even I don’t understand half of the things you say and I love biology!”

Did Jack really was a gardening nerd? Gosh, that was kind of embarrassing. Well, gladly only his close friends and family knew about it, so it didn’t matter. And he had to listen to their scientific mumbo-jumbo-whatever, so they can deal with him talking about flowers and plants!

“No worries, Jack. It’s kind of charming to see you so invested in something.” Tooth quickly continued, when he looked at her.

Was he blushing? Maybe?

“Gee thanks.” But coming to this, he wondered if he see the snowdrops he had planted in his garden last fall. Maybe near March, because this year winter was quite chilly, so he doubted they would blossom out in February.

His gaze automatically travelled to the siblings standing under the window sill. It could be his imagination, but he had a feeling that Thorin grew up a little.

“Hey, what do you plan for Valentines’ Day?”

The question shook him awake from the sudden maze of thoughts he had jumped into.

“Pardon?”

Tooth smiled, but rolled her eyes. She lifted her legs to her chest and rested the side of her face on her knees.

“Valentines’ Days? It’s like in two weeks? You and Hiccup – still technically dating. Ringing any bell inside your head?”

Valentine’s Day? It did sound familiar, but what should it… Oh, shit. He totally forgot about Valentines’ Day! Well, he had a valid reason for forgetting about Valentines, but still!

“Erm…” Jack started, only for Tooth to interrupt him.

“Does Hiccup even know you have birthday then?”

Good question. Probably not. Well, from where he could obtain such information? Facebook? They had become friends after their plan had started (which was, well, one of the facts that may had made people question their relationship). Twitter? No, Hiccup didn’t have Twitter… There was a chance Hiccup could hear the date of Jack’s birthday around the school, but the teen doubted his friend had paid any attention to that before.

But should Jack even tell him that his own birthday was coming up soon? Wouldn’t it be a little bit weird to do so? _Hey, you know, I have birthday in two weeks. I wanted to tell you because we’re technically dating, so yeah, wouldn’t it be weird if you didn’t know this date. Haha by the way, when do you have birthday?!_

Yop, cross that out. Nu huh, sounds dumb. And a little bit selfish. But it wasn’t like Jack wanted anything for his birthday from Hiccup, so it wasn’t that bad in the end?

That was confusing.

Wait, wait, wait. Rebooting, starting over, starting over! Tooth asked him a question.

“I… don’t think so?” Jack said unsurely, lifting his hand and putting it on the nape of his neck. His fingers twitched nervously, but stayed in place.

Tooth groaned, like really loud, and rolled her eyes. Yep, Jack was kind of pathetic in this matter. But come on! It wasn’t that important probably, right?

“I’ll write to Astrid to tell her to hint it to Hiccup, so it wouldn’t look suspicious.” The girl was speaking while taking out her phone and probably already opening a tab to message Astrid.

Jack blinked at that, feeling sudden rush of relief washing over him, like a rain pouring down on a bad day.

“You don’t have-“ He started, to be once again interrupted.

“Shush now. Plus I’m sure Hiccup would be mad if he missed it. You are friends, right?”

Friends. This word sounded mesmerizing and harsh both in the same time and it kind of made Jack’s heart skip a beat (like it was jumping over a log in a deep forest) both in a good and bad way.

“I think we are?”

“You think?” Tooth asked, rising her eyebrows, but with a hint of amusement echoing somewhere in her voice.

“I’m sure.” Jack corrected himself, allowing for his hand to fall down onto the soft quilt with constellations’ pattern.

“Good, because I already sent it. Plus, you still didn’t answer my question. Valentine’s Day. You must have something planned for your boyfriend!” Then Tooth started to clap her hands, like she was urging small kids to move faster because they were blocking the way. “You are slacking off!” She even punctuated every word with a clap. That was commitment!

“Me? Why!?” Jack asked, shaking his head.

“There wasn’t even a New Year’s kiss between you! Boo!”

Well, okay, Jack didn’t know that Tooth was so much into it or that she was shipping them. Kind of weird. Maybe she was even coming up with names for their pairing during sleepless nights!? Oh no, that was terrifying.

“That’s because…” Yeah, why? “That’s because we agreed on _no kissing_ unless we really have to.” Almost true. Was there any other reason*?

“Still boo!”

“Stop it!”

Tooth giggled. Seriously, was she fangirling or what?

But to be honest, he kind of forgot about upcoming Valentine’s Day. And even to be more honest, Jack wasn’t a big fan of this holiday. Surprising, right? Always happy Jack didn’t like Valentines. He never really liked getting pink hearts’ cards with real feelings written at the bottom. He didn’t like when girls made him chocolates. He didn’t like when they were confessing to him, because… simply because Jack couldn’t reciprocate it. And all these things made him feel like he was faking, faking something or someone who he was trying to be.

Or maybe he didn’t like that he couldn’t be this perfect someone everyone thought he was.

Because he couldn’t.

However now he forgot about it due to his mother. She had said that she was coming in February and she had written that she would call, but still there was no sign of life from her. And Jack wasn’t sure whether he was relieved or more stressed than when he had seen the postcard for the first time.

Now, he didn’t want to tell anyone about it. Emma and North knew that there was a  possibility of Eris coming to their home. North even had looked a little bit happy about it, well as happy as he could be after what had happened between them. Emma, on the other side… yeah, to say that she was displeased would be an understatement. She never liked Jack’s real mother and he couldn’t really blame her, nor he actually minded.

So yeah, that and Hiccup and school and Aster were a lot on his mind recently. No wonder he forgot a little bit about Valentine’s Day and his own birthday.

Jack groaned.

“I guess I need to talk about it with him.”

Tooth tilted her head and her earrings swished softly, following her movement.

“Why?” She inquired, looking genuinely confused.

“Why?” Jack parroted after her. “Because we aren’t dating. This is simply a plan to get some people off our heads. So every step had to be planned!” Jack said, trying to sound as calm and collected, even though his chest was getting tighter and tighter with every spoken word. But it was truth. It was just their plan, a deal they had made with each other.

It was only Jack’s fault that he had started to develop feelings.

No, Jack couldn’t think like that. It was like Astrid had said – this wasn’t bad. He wasn’t at fault, it was a totally normal thing that could happen. He had to relax. It was okay, it was okay, it was okay…

Somewhere, at the back of his head, his own voice mingled and transformed into Astrid’s one. It was okay. There was nothing bad in Jack having feelings for Hiccup. It was okay. It was going to be okay. Okay, okay, okay.

“Well, but don’t you want to surprise him a little?” Tooth asked.

One a little longer inhale and Jack was almost back to normal.

“I want to, but I’m not sure how he would react to that. So better not to do it. He himself said he didn’t like surprises.”

“Weird guy.” Tooth said, not menacingly, but with a fond smile on her painted lips.

“He is.” Jack confirmed with a small nod of his head in the rhythm of his phone coming to life on his desk.

The device chirped happily a song, turning around on the surface. A call. Who could call him now?

Jack stood up and walked to the desk. Okay more like he only put one foot on the floor and then reached for the device. He had to stretch pretty hard to even touch his phone, but well of course, standing up and getting there was too hard task.

The call was going for half a minute before Jack finally grabbed his phone and looked at the caller ID.

Hiccup. Okay, wow, weird. He called Jack twice this year. New record. He had done that only once in the last one. Which was pretty strange, because Jack was pretty sure Hiccup didn’t really like to call anyone. Like pretty, pretty sure.

Not that he was mad or minded it. Of course not (his skipping heart agreed with him on this matter). But it just sent a weird, off vibe inside his ribcage.

He turned to Tooth who was eyeing him curiously.

“It’s Hiccup-“ Jack started, but was almost immediately interrupted by Tooth waving at him, almost shushing or urging to do something.

“Pick up then!”

Oh, right. That.

Jack brushed his finger on the screen and put the device near his ear, licking his bottom lip first.

“Hello?”

“Oh, hey Jack!” Definitely Hiccup, but his voice was very high and weirdly off-tune, almost unusual. Like he was faking it. “How-how are you?”

“Uhm… good.” As good as Jack could get actually. But to be honest, he wasn’t feeling terrible lately. Since the talk with Astrid, that was. “And you?”

“Great, totally great.” Definitely not great judging by the high pitched tone of his voice. This didn’t sound right. Jack glanced at Tooth, but she wasn’t paying attention to him, and had her eyes glued to her own phone. “I mean it could be better, but I’m still fine. I have labs tomorrow. I will kill myself if I have to do the vacuum distillation one more time*.”

“Is it so bad?” Jack continued the topic, even though he couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Hiccup was talking really fast, like he wanted to get something off his chest. He definitely would get out of breath soon at this pace.

“I mean, it is effective, but I definitely prefer other types of distillation. Maybe not azeotropic that much. But still.” A loud inhale. “It’s still better than some of the other things I’m doing there. And you know…” And Hiccup jumped into too long explanation about something that Jack couldn’t totally understand. He only caught singe words like _infrared_ , _wavelength,_ some kind of chart and a lot of numbers and organic names*.

Jack was humming and butting in single words to show that he was still there, even though he was lost. But it looked like Hiccup needed to talk, so Jack let him do it.

It was going on for at least four minutes, until there was a loud sigh coming from the other side, followed by definitely more normal voice of his friend.

“Okay, he is gone. Sorry about that…”

“No problem.” Jack said quickly, using his happy tone to show that he wasn’t mad. Because he wasn’t. Only confused. “Do you want to fill me in on what happened?”

“Ugh. It was just Dagur.”

“Dagur?” Jack repeated, sharpening his voice and mind after that. He thought that all this mumbo-jumbo had ended. Guess not.

“Yeah. Unfortunately…”

“Why were you with him?” He asked. His tone was a little bit low, maybe even too harsh and angry. But it wasn’t directed at Hiccup. He was just a little bit… tini-tiny bit… overprotective of all his friends.

Plus the fact that he knew what Dagur was capable of wasn’t helping him being calm and cool. Even the rainbow haired girl lifted her face at him, rising one eyebrow in the process. Jack waved at her.

“Hehe you know this is a funny story…”

The story Hiccup told him after that wasn’t really funny. It was kind of opposite of funny. And Jack knew, because he was the Master of Pranks. He was the whole epitome of fun. So yeah, indeed the story was nerve-wracking and mildly had an undertone of black humor. And bad luck. A lot of it actually.

“And yeah… we went out together, but I kind of didn’t feel comfortable around him alone. Like alone alone, so I panicked and I called you...” Hiccup finished, breathing heavily at the very end, like the whole story took him forever to tell. In reality it was more like five minutes in total. “I’m sorry if my call was a problem. I can actually finish it-“

“No, no, no, no don’t worry!” Shit. Jack sounded almost desperate. But he was kind of happy. Totally happy. Super happy? “I’m actually glad you called me. Never know what could happen, right? So I’m glad. And I’m glad that everything went well.” Was Jack repeating himself? Judging by the amused look on Tooth’s pink lips he was.

“Thanks. I appreciate it.” Then Hiccup cleared his throat. After that there were few heartbeats of silence, like the auburn haired teen didn’t know whether he wanted to brush some topic or was simply searching for a new one. “Really. Anyway, I’m near the store, where I can buy parts, so…”

“Oh, okay. Write to me when you’ll return home, okay?” Jack said, turning and glancing at Galadriel. Looking at her was always making him feel better.

“I will. And thanks one more time.” And after that the beeping sound resonated in Jack’s left ear, indicating the end of the call.

Jack sighed and slumped more comfortably on the bed. He was taunted like a string until now and wow, he didn’t even notice it. But gosh, his back was aching right now.

“Well at least it’s good that between you two it’s brightening up.”

Jack groaned. Okay, maybe he was fucking easy to read.

* * *

“You know that Valentine’s Day is coming soon, right?”

Hiccup nodded and rummaged through a jar full of screws. He stole it from the garage. Well, technically he didn’t steal it, as it was his father’s jar. However he didn’t ask for permission. But Stoick wasn’t home and he didn’t like to be interrupted while he was working, so yeah… technically stolen jar.

Astrid was sitting on his bad and playing with Toothless, with some magazine opened on her lap. It looked like it wasn’t even her own, as it was too glittery. Maybe she lent it from Tooth? Probably.

“And you know what else is coming?”

“New _Dragon Age_ game?” Hiccup guessed. With her and Fishlegs it was almost always about games.

There was a tired huff coming from behind his back. Hiccup lifted one smaller screw and checked if it fit. It could be perfect, or a little bit too small.

“That’s too. But someone’s very special birthday is coming up.”

Birthday? Whose birthday is coming? Definitely not Neil deGrasse Tyson*. So about whom Astrid could be speaking about? Ruff and Tuff had birthday in March, but it was February which was around the corner.

“Uhm…” Hiccup hummed, putting the screw in the proper place and grabbing a tiny screwdriver. Man, drill-driver would be better at this very moment, but it ran out of the power. Or was broken. Both options seemed possible.

“And you know I think you should do something for him on this very special day.” Astrid apparently was still talking, even though Hiccup was only half listening to her at this point.

“Sounds good.” Fuck, his screw fell down and ran away. It kind of rolled in the direction of his laptop, but when Hiccup lifted it, it wasn’t there. Did it fall down?

“I think it would be good. And I think he will be very happy if you do something special to him.” Her tone was kind of weird, like it held something inside of it. A hidden undertone, or a secret message encoded in octaves and sounds. But Hiccup didn’t pay it more attention than to simply point out the obvious observation.

“That’s great.” He nodded and moved away from the desk, together with his seat. He quickly caught it before it would fall down. He kneeled and started to search under the desk. This screw was pretty important. At least Dagur had said so? And he kind of looked like he knew more about building machines than Hiccup.

Although following his instructions, or ‘friendly advices’ as Professor Robinson called it, was kind of strange in Hiccup’s opinion.

He maneuvered in dark, empty and dusty world of the place under his desk. Seriously, Hiccup didn’t want to know what he was sometimes touching. But still no screw. His hands floated above the ground, almost touching it, but not really in the same time.

“You should think more about it.” Astrid continued her monologue.

His hand touched something cold, but it was too big. Definitely not the thing he was looking for. Few inches to the left and there was a bile of Toothless’ fur. Yuck. Okay, a little bit further and yes…

“You know I made out with Jim? He was so hot!”

“What!?” Hiccup shrieked and lifted his body to, of course, hit his head on the wooden desk above him. Shit, it hurt. But Astrid’s sentence caught him off guard.

Hissing in paint and massaging the aching place, he scrambled out from the dark place and looked at her.

“Really? You two kissed!? Why didn’t you tell me sooner!?” Okay, maybe his voice was way too high, but come on!

Astrid rolled her eyes with something similar to a relieved, yet evil smirk playing in the corners of her lips.

“No, it didn’t happen. I wanted to check if you were listening to me.”

“Oh my god, Astrid!” Hiccup groaned and stood up. He more over slumped down on his chair and swirled around to face her now. “You’re terrible, you know that?”

“I know.” She nodded playfully and then looked down at Toothless laying on the bed. She turned the cat around, so he was laying on his back, and grabbed his front paws. “I’m terrible, right? Yes, I’m terrible!” She cooed, waving the fluffy paws in different direction with every spoken word.

Hiccup lifted his eyebrow. And people were telling him that he was crazy over his cat. Apparently it was Astrid who had it worse.

“So about whose birthday you were talking about?” He asked instead, remembering the previous topic. Plus he honestly had no idea about whom she could be talking about.

The girl leaned and snuggled her nose into Toothless’ soft black fur while giggling happily. Only when she was done with the torture put upon poor cat’s body, she looked up.

“Jack. Who else?” She said like it was the most obvious thing in the entire universe. She even cocked her eyebrow. Heh, weird. Why should this be obvious?

Oh, yeah the fake-relationship. Shit. Hiccup was bad at remembering dates. Especially anniversaries. They always somehow managed to evaporate from his head when the time to remember them was coming up. Apparently Hiccup’s brain often decided to discard those numbers that apparently weren’t that important. But they were.

“Jack’s birthday is coming up?” He asked just to be sure.

She rolled her eyes and straightened her posture. Toothless rolled onto his belly and looked at her.

“Dude, do you even look sometimes through your Facebook?”

Erm…

“Not really?” Hiccup confessed, shrugging and then resting his palms on connected ankles he had put on the seat. “I mainly use it to talk with you guys or to check if someone from the Chemistry Club wants something…” And maybe sometimes he checks some weird scientific pages with lame science jokes and memes. But nobody beside Fishlegs need to know that!

“Then good you have me to remind you.” Astrid huffed. “It would be weird if you did nothing for your boyfriend’s birthday.”

Well, yeah, it would be kind of weird. But hey, come on, he could always say that he was waiting to be alone to give Jack his present!

Wait, a second. No, wrong! That was so wrong. Oh my god. He was so glad Astrid told him about it! Hiccup would burst in flames of embarrassment if he dropped this bomb around other people. Gosh that would be scary. He just missed major fail. But something was telling him that Jack would be laughing his ass for eternities if he did that.

“You’re right…” Hiccup nodded.

“Plus Valentine’s Day. They are both on the same day. And you’re are together so…”

That was a problem too. Dang it. He really should talk about it with Jack, right? Right. Well, lately the relationship between them wasn’t as cold as it had been few days ago, but still. Plus he kind of wanted to spend some time with him. Alone. Like only the two of them. It felt like ages since they had done that. And maybe it even was.

Hiccup groaned and looked up at the ceiling.

“I think you should meet in person and talk about this!” Astrid suddenly proposed, looking at him with smile so bright and radiant that it was almost making him blind.

“Okay…” Hiccup said, after a while, unsure why she was insisting on it. “I mean I was planning to do it in person, but…”

“Then do it!” She said one more time, grinning wildly.

Okay, that was very strange. But it was Astrid. And he was glad she was back with him after their not-so-small-to-him quarrel.

“I will, sheesh, don’t worry! But tomorrow! Now I need to finish at least the backbone of my project.” Hiccup said, loudly, putting his hands in front of himself in defending manner. Seriously, what was up with Astrid lately? First she hadn’t been as happy as Hiccup had thought she would be after discovering that he had been writing with Aster and now she was almost pushing him to make Valentines’ plans?

Women, right?

The blonde haired girl scoffed, but smiled, which meant she accepted the terms and conditions.

“Okay, okay. But, of course, you need to tell me what you’ll be planning!”

“I will tell you.” Hiccup rolled his eyes. He couldn’t force his mind to feel even one percent of the enthusiasm which was beaming from Astrid’s body. She was more into it than Hiccup and Jack were.

Actually it felt like all his friends were more into their relationship than them. Yay…

“Good.” Then she tilted her head and looked past him, probably at the parts of something… something that hopefully will become his project. Soon. “Hey, do you want me to wait for you when you’ll be having another rendezvous with Dagur in Professor Robinson’s lab?”

Hiccup internally gagged. No, wait, he did it in real life too.

“Please, don’t call it that.” He corrected his glasses, when they slipped down after Hiccup leaned down.

Astrid snorted, like she just made the best joke in the whole universe. Which wasn’t true. Maybe she was just laughing at him trying not to throw up.

“The offer still stands.”

It was very nice and to be honest greatly appreciated. And to tell the truth Hiccup would feel so much better if he had someone who could wait for him, so he wouldn’t be left alone with Dagur of all people. But first, he didn’t know how long his ‘lessons’ could be. Second, he knew Astrid had a lot of things on her shoulders – especially homework and trainings, which didn’t end when winter had come. And third, Dagur had made no movements that would show that he had wanted to hurt Hiccup or anything like that. To be real, he had been kind of… far away during their last meeting. Like, he hadn’t even tried to touch him or anything. Even when he had been pointing something at Hiccup’s project, their skins hadn’t touched. It was good for Hiccup. Really good. Astonishingly good. And because of that he decided to decline the offer.

It wasn’t like he was totally trusting Dagur. Oh no, he was far away from it. But for now he will observe him, scrutinize him with his own gaze, look for any kind of signs of old Dagur retuning back.

“No, I think I’ll manage for now.” _Hopefully_ , someone in his mind added, snickering at the end. Hiccup quickly brushed the negative thought away.

“If you say so. But remember to always message me after returning home. And if you need anything, just call me.”

“Okay, mom!” Hiccup groaned, rising his head.

Seriously, he didn’t need that much babysitting. He was independent human being. Almost an adult. Almost. Right?

Astrid giggled.

It looked that not so much.

* * *

_Do you have some free time after_

_school to talk? In private?_

Jack literally gaped at his phone. Well, to be honest, he didn’t know what to expect. Well he also wanted to talk with Hiccup about Valentine’s Day. Maybe this was what he wanted to talk about. Their plan required both participants in the end.

But well, the message had no emoticon, no smiling face, no weird sign. It kind of looked morbid. Jack also didn’t use emojis when he wanted to show that he was serious. Was Hiccup serious now? Did something happen? Maybe? Maybe not? Did Astrid tell him about Jack feelings?

This idea made his heart skip a beat not in the real nice way. Like in that very bad way, however he quickly brushed that thought away – like snow from a windowsill. Astrid wasn’t like that. She wouldn’t sell his secrets, even to Hiccup. Or maybe especially to Hiccup.

_Okie-dokie_ _⊂_ _((_ _・▽・_ _))_ _⊃_

And sent. Okay… okay…

After few minutes came a reply. Well, no wonder, they were in the middle of classes.

_See you at the back door after classes?_

And no emoticon one more time. Seriously…

_Sure °˖_ _✧◝_ _(⁰_ _▿_ _⁰)_ _◜✧_ _˖°_

There was a cough from the front part of the classroom and Jack lifted his face to his teacher’s scrutinizing look directed right at him. He swallowed, put on an innocent smile on his lips and pocketed his phone. The teacher nodded at Jack and returned to lecturing.

Oh boy. What could Hiccup want from him?

* * *

Okay. Jack wasn’t nervous. Of course, he wasn’t. He was Jackson Overland! He didn’t fear a simple meeting with a friend. He was brave, young warrior! And he wouldn’t be intimidated by it!

Only he was. Kind of… kind of really scared.

His heart was beating like crazy inside his ribcage, to this point Jack had to clench his shirt there. He was almost sure everyone around him could hear it, even though he knew it was probably impossible. Once or twice he had an urge to ask Tooth if she was hearing this weird beating sound, but decided otherwise in the end. That would be dumb.

Why was he so nervous about the idea of meeting up with Hiccup? Alone, just the two of them, without anyone else?

Okay, well, he kind of knew why he was nervous. It’ll be the first time they’ll be meeting alone after Jack’s revelations. And even though he was sure, even one hundred percent sure, nothing will happen, he couldn’t help the small stream of stress and fear from seeping into his heart.

He didn’t feel such strong emotions in a long time.

But even though his heart was a beating mess, his mind was even worse, he was actually kind of happy? And terrified, because he still didn’t know about what Hiccup wanted to talk about. But happy! About the idea of being able to spend more time with him.

 _Pushing him away won’t help_ , Astrid had told him when he had been yet once again whining to her on the phone during one evening.

And she was right. In both things. First was the fact that Jack had been unconsciously (or not really) pushing Hiccup away. And the second - it didn’t help. Like at all. Jack had a feeling it was even making everything way worse.

To this point he was super excited about the idea of simply hanging out with his friend. He was also terrified, but gosh darn it - he was so stupidly overjoyed about it. Like, honestly, that was probably dumb how much positive emotions he could fit into his heart right now. He kinda felt like a child.

But there wasn’t anything bad about it, right?

So Jack almost skipped to the back exit after he said goodbyes to Tooth, humming some catchy song under his nose. He opened the door with too much force and stood there proudly for few seconds, only to notice that Hiccup wasn’t there yet. Welp, so much for his grand entrance. Or exit, in this case. But at least he got some attention from few freshmen still hanging around. Jack simply waved at them.

Jack moved to the wall and leaned on it. He might as well wait here. It wasn’t like he was cold outside or anything like that. Even though he had only long sleeved shirt and his blouse. This kind of clothing would give other people first degree frostbites. But not Jack. He was almost immune to it.

Maybe he was an Eskimo in the previous life? Who knew?

Plus, the cold weather was helping him calm his crazy, storming heart. It also weakened the blush which definitely was covering his cheeks. It wasn’t big, or particularly strong, but Jack knew his skin there was hot. And he definitely didn’t want Hiccup interrogating him about that. That would be awkward, especially because Jack was a bad liar.

And if there was one thing he couldn’t do, it was telling Hiccup his real feelings. Not now, maybe in the future, or maybe never. For now Jack didn’t want to worry about it. It was the problem for future Jack. The present Jack was going to enjoy spending some time with Hiccup.

Speaking of the devil.

“Hey, did you wait long?”

Jack turned to look at fully clothed Hiccup, who was staring at him and breathing heavily. Did he run here?

“Nah, just got there.” Which technically was the truth. Jack maybe only waited one or two minutes. No biggie. “Did you run here?”

Hiccup nodded, catching big gulps of cold air. Jack wanted to say that it wasn’t healthy to do so, but the teen quickly started speaking.

“Yeah. I went to check one thing in the lab and I chatted too long with the teacher.” Hiccup said, pushing his hat higher.

Jack nodded while feeling his whole insides buzzing with joy after simply seeing the boy. Oh no, he had a feeling he was starting to have it bad. Like really bad. But he had to survive this afternoon, simply because he wanted to. Even if this meant keeping his emotions and feelings in check.

“No worries. We both were almost on time!” Jack added, moving away from the wall and standing next to Hiccup.

“Both?” Hiccup huffed, a hint of amusement at the end of this one word. It made Jack’s stomach do a back-flip. Honestly. When did his organs learn to do that!?

“I never said that I’m a punctual guy!” Jack said, stepping in the direction of the school’s gate with Hiccup quickly catching up.

“Some people may think it’s a bad trait.”

“I’m not one of those people!’ Jack quickly added, lifting his head up to the sky, like it was something to be proud of. He knew it wasn’t, but he wanted to show his point. And he wanted to hear the sigh coming from Hiccup’s lips in approximately three, two, one-

“Ugh… you!”

There it was! In all its weird glory. It was way too long since Jack had heard it in person.

So he did the only logical thing. Jack simply snickered and threw his arm over Hiccup’s shoulder, bringing him in for a warm half-hug.

“I missed you, Hic!”

Wait… wait, wait, wait, did these words really leave his lips. Shit, shit, shit, shit, abort mission. What mission?! Jack didn’t know!

But Hiccup’s body under his shoulder didn’t twitch. It didn’t fidget in that nervous way. It didn’t suddenly become rigid. In reality, Jack had a feeling the auburn haired teen even slumped in this strange embrace. There was one moment – a skip, a leap, a spark in Jack’s chest – when Hiccup’s hand sneaked and patted his back. Kind of awkward, some may say that almost unnatural, but it was perfect in its beautiful and sloppy way.

And yeah, it kinda made Jack’s legs feel like jelly, but he held strongly to not suddenly crumble down, like some Lovesick Maiden*.

Hiccup’s palm rested there, on Jack’s back, barely touching the blouse there. But it was there! Oh my god. Jack honestly felt like he could die any second.

The fact that the same freshmen Jack had seen previously turned to them and whistled loudly didn’t really help. And the yell that followed actually made him almost trip.

“Aww love-birds!”

This time Hiccup twitched, but it was expected. And Jack was sure now Hiccup’s cheeks were bright red, like poppies during warm summer. Jack’s own ones probably also were hinted with rosy color. But he turned to the freshmen and stuck his tongue out.

So childish, but it was the only response Jack could think off. Plus, it was so him to do it, that the group only laughed and gladly left them alone, saying farewell with one last whistle.

That was… too much for his stomach definitely, which squirmed and jumped and twirled and danced and did all this weird things inside his body. The butterflies definitely had a party there. Wild things! Wish it didn’t cost Jack so much stress and pain due to their parties down there.

Jack looked down at Hiccup who surprisingly was staring back at him.

“Guess we are a little bit out of practice.”

A little bit was an understatement. Maybe even more than a little bit.

“Maybe… but you know, only maybe.” Jack said, trying hard not to sound hoarse or out of breath, even though it was really hard to talk through his tightened throat.

And then Hiccup smiled this goofy grin and all Jack’s inner walls shook in their bases. Shit.

“Yeah, totally.”

He really got it hard?

No innuendo!

* * *

Jack’s house was looking the same as Hiccup remembered it. Even the Christmas’ decorations were still on, even though February was just around the corner. Or like in two days actually.

“Do you even plan to take those lights off?” Hiccup asked, when he stopped looking at the colorful bulbs and finally stepped into the Overland’s household.

Jack hummed as he took his shoes off.

“I don’t know. The next Christmas is _only_ around three hundred and thirty days away.” Oh, he even underlined that one word with a smirk on his lips, when he straightened his body and glanced back at Hiccup. “I don’t know if it’s even worth hiding them now.”

“Such short time indeed.” Hiccup nodded and took off his jacket to hang it on the hook. “Better be prepared for another Christmas.”

“You understand me, bro!”

Hiccup shook his head.

Seriously, this was it. This was what had been missing. Just them being simply… them. Stupid, unimportant talks, but comfortable ones. Some a little bit crazy, some even dumb, some more important than others.

But with Jack next to Hiccup, looking at him like nothing in the whole world changed, Hiccup felt simply comfortable.

It honestly felt good to be back here, to have a little bit of the old, same Jack back.

“You hungry? I can fix something to eat pretty quickly.” Jack asked, pointing with his head at the kitchen.

“No, right now I’m not starving. But coffee would be greatly appreciated.”

“Two coffees coming right up!”

They worked together in the kitchen. Hiccup filled the kettle while Jack searched for two cups. Then Hiccup passed him a teaspoon, when the white haired teen finally found a jar with coffee. They talked about nothing in particular while waiting for the water to boil. Then Jack poured it into two cups and Hiccup went to get milk from the fridge.

It was nice.

With cup in one hand, they moved to Jack’s room which didn’t change at all. Maybe was even a bit messier than last year. But well Hiccup didn’t actually give Jack time to clean up the mess. Plus it wasn’t that bad.

The only difference was in form of two lilacs standing under the windowsill and Hiccup… Hiccup felt a pang of pride drumming in his chest at this sight. Because it was his present for Jack and it looked like the teen really treasured it.

“They’re looking good!” The auburn haired boy said, stepping closer to the two trees.

Jack lifted his head from gathering his used shirts. He blinked twice.

“Yes, they are my little warriors.”

Hiccup smiled at that, sensing something warm bubbling inside his chest. It was good that he had hit a jackpot with the present. But now there was another fight in front of his eyes. Jack’s birthday. He still didn’t really think about it.

“Thorin looks like he could grow pods soon.”

Hiccup snickered at that.

“Thorin?” He repeated, glancing back at Jack – now with arms full of his shirts.

Ah damn, he blushed. He made Jack blush. That was so precious!

Jack frowned at Hiccup with that rosy hint adorning his cheeks. Almost like very faint phenolphthalein in barely alkali environment. Hiccup liked that color.

“W-what?” The white haired teen stammered, but maybe because two shirts just slipped away from his grasp and he tried to catch them in the same time.

Hiccup chuckled at the acrobatic display in front of him. Jack lifted his head with a small frown, maybe even with a hesitation hidden somewhere in the back of the bright blue eyes. The white haired teen opened his mouth and Hiccup was sure that there was some snarky comeback just waiting to be said, but… nothing happened. Like literally. Jack closed his mouth, furrowed his eyebrows more and then looked past Hiccup at the two trees.

There was something in his eyes – something Hiccup couldn’t particularly name. Like this crumb of something unwanted swimming in a solution. This wasn’t even technically this per se, but the feeling was pretty similar.

Hiccup had problems with naming his own emotions, but he knew that there was something sad in Jack’s look? Yeah, sad. Sad was a very good word here. Maybe even hinted with some kind of yearning or… or longing? And if Hiccup’s eyes weren’t deceiving him then also mixed with… regret?

All in all, Hiccup didn’t like this look. He definitely preferred maybe not the always happy Jack – because the never ending grin on Jack’s mouth wasn’t always honest, but something else. And it kind of felt like it was his fault.

“Is it bad?” Jack finally asked, glancing at Hiccup, only to quickly look away. “I mean me…“ He cleared his throat. “…naming them?”

Wait, wait, wait. Did Jack seriously think that Hiccup was mad at Jack for naming Hiccup’s present? Well, maybe not mad, but that Hiccup was making fun of him because of that?  This… this was not what Hiccup intended to do. To be perfectly honest he was happy about it? Like there was this warm, fuzzy something starting to form inside his chest. He was almost one hundred percent sure it was happiness. This or he was dying right now due to some weird sickness spreading fast in his lungs.

No, that wasn’t possible. So this definitely was joy.

Oh and he still didn’t answer Jack who now glanced for the second time at him. Uh, shit.

“Uh… no…” Hiccup finally said and wanted to immediately face-palm himself. That didn’t sound confident at all! He sounded like an asshole! No, no, no!

Jack now raised his eyebrow, but before he was able to utter any more words, Hiccup butted with his own explanation.

He had to make it right and try to show what he really meant.

“I-I mean…” Okay, Hiccup got it. He got it. But why was Jack suddenly staring so intently at him! It felt like today his gaze was more sharp and stronger than ever. No, that probably was his imagination. “Well, what I meant is that I don’t think this is bad.” Still didn’t sound good! “Maybe some people would think this is childish… or… or inappropriate but-“ Shit, Hiccup was digging his own grave with his words. Just let him rest here and die of embarrassment.

But Jack didn’t look angry. Now both his eyebrows were raised up and there was a shadow of a smile in the corner of his lips.

“However you shouldn’t care and listen to these people, because they aren’t right! I mean maybe they think they are right, but they aren’t. And there is nothing wrong with naming things you like!” Now Hiccup’s voice was accompanied by his hands which moved from side to side. “I’m even doing it now. I mean, sometimes I’m naming some things I’m making during labs! Well… well I often forget later what this name was, but it’s the idea that counts.” Oh my god, he was a mess. “But I have a lot of plushies from childhood which names I still remember! Like… like my teddy bear which is named Mr. Honeynuts*!”

Hiccup wasn’t sure why he raised his voice at the end. But he was totally sure his whole lecture made zero sense. He started with something, but didn’t know where he wanted to go. So he just rambled about random things which popped into his mind.

God, he was a failure in social interactions and lifting people’s spirits up.

But Jack… Jack was looking back at him and he was so… so bright and radiant and, god, could you actually stretch your mouth to such limits? Hiccup didn’t know if that was possible. But here he was, with Jack who looked like the happiest person on Earth.

Ugh, Hiccup kinda wanted to close his eyes, because such brightness was hurting them.

Jack opened his mouth and Hiccup waited, anticipated the words that were soon to be spoken.

“You’re a dork.”

Well, that was very eloquent. But it was Jack, he kind of should have expected this. It didn’t mean though that the fire under his cheeks was any smaller.

“Shut up.“ Hiccup mumbled and coughed. Wow, yeah, his throat was dry.

But the white haired teen only giggled at that response. Giggled! How dared he!? Fortunately, this movement made Jack lose hold on the clothes he was trying to gather and resulted in most of them scattering to the floor.

“Shit.”

Karma worked well.

It took Jack around four minutes to finally collect all his dirty clothes again. He left Hiccup alone in his room, saying that he was going to be right back as he only needed to turn on the washing machine.

Hiccup had no heart to tell him that he missed one sock, so he only grabbed his coffee and turned to the lilacs. One sip of the warm drink soothed his throat and allowed the muscles to relax.

Hiccup sat down in front of the trees and smiled under his nose.

“Hey. You’re looking good.” He whispered quietly, so no one else in the house would hear him, but loud enough that it was actually spoken. “Jack is taking good care of you.” There was no response from either of the siblings, but Hiccup didn’t mind. Actually it would be kind of terrifying if he did receive a reply. So this was way better. “It’s good. You look much better than when I first bought you.” Hiccup tilted his head. “I’m sure you’ll be happy here. Thorin, right?” His eyes jumped to the tree on the right. “And you are…”

“Galadriel.”

Hiccup twitched and few droplets of coffee escaped from the cup, but gladly didn’t fall on the floor.

“W-what?” Shit, did Jack hear him talking to his plants? Would he think it was weird?

Hiccup turned around and here he was, his friend, standing in the doorway without his dirty clothes.

“Galadriel.” Jack repeated himself, even though Hiccup heard him the first time. “I named the second one Galadriel.”

Maybe Hiccup should say something cool. Because, wow, that name actually sounded nice. Plus, he really loved the original characters from which these names came from, but the only thing his brain comprehended and allowed him to say was:

“And you call me a nerd.”

Nailed it!

Jack blinked, only to snort in the end, while shaking his head. He moved closer to Hiccup and kneeled in front of the trees, first grabbing his own cup from the desk. Jack sighed heavily when he finally sat down next to him with their knees touching. Hiccup, surprisingly didn’t mind. Or more like he didn’t mind when it was Jack or some of his friends. He kind of got used to it by now.

Jack looked at the lilacs and smiled softly under his nose. Like really smiled. It was honest and pure and kind of childish, it was the whole epitome of Jack Hiccup hadn’t seen during the last few weeks since Jack had started to avoid him.

Why? Hiccup still didn’t know, nor he actually expect to ever know the answer. No matter how cheerful Jack was, he was keeping all his emotions, especially negative ones, under cover. Hiccup sort of wanted to know the truth, he wanted to ask and get a clear answer. But the chances of it happening were very low. Plus Hiccup was afraid that him inquiring would make things worse.

Somewhere in the back of Hiccup’s mind he had a feeling that it was his fault. But why? What had he done?

However in this very moment, with Jack looking, staring, almost gazing so kindly at the lilacs, it felt like nothing happened. Like there wasn’t weeks of him ignoring Hiccup, like the argument between him and Astrid didn’t happen, like Aster’s message wasn’t waiting on his phone, like Dagur becoming his tutor didn’t occurre in reality.

Hiccup loved Overland’s household. The whole house had this atmosphere – this kind of disruption of reality, where you feel like you’re dreaming a very nice dream. Everything seemed better here.

Or maybe that wasn’t because of the house, but simply because of Jack? Spending time with him always made Hiccup feel better and more… more comfortable with himself. He hoped Jack could say the same about spending time with Hiccup, but… who was he joking…

“So about what do you need to talk about?” Jack’s question fished him back to the real world.

It took him few seconds to collect thoughts, now scattered all over his consciousness. But when he gathered every idea and question, somehow he still didn’t know how to start this really… really embarrassing topic.

They maybe were fake-dating for three or so months by now, but it still was too hard.

“So you know…” Hiccup cleared his throat and then took a sip. “That February is coming. I mean, it’s in few days and well…”

“Valentine’s Day, right?” Jack proposed, sending him a saucy grin, which didn’t really help Hiccup all that much.

“Yeah that and… well, I was wondering if we should do something on that day?”

Jack… honestly looked confused. Like, seriously, his face and whole body just froze for a second, maybe even longer, but came back to life with him swallowing hard.

Then, painfully slow, he licked his bottom lip.

“We as…?”

Hiccup didn’t know if this needed any more clarification. From what he knew they were still both into their arrangement. But what if something had changed? Did he miss something? Was he not informed about some details, or some kind of the end of the contract? They didn’t even have contract in the first place!

“Erm… we as a fake pair?” Hiccup slowly mumbled, eyeing his partner curiously.

Jack’s eyes widened for a second, maybe less, or maybe it wasn’t even there and it all was just Hiccup’s imagination, but he could swear it really happened. There was a short spasm of time when Jack’s eyes softened, not in the reassured, but defeated way. Like he expected the answer and yet he was still disappointed by the outcome.

A quick spark of lighted match, only for it to die instantly due to the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere.

“Because we are still doing this?” Hiccup asked.

This shook Jack and brought him back to reality from whatever space he was occupying just a millisecond ago.

“Yes, yes, we are.” He quickly cleared it, laughing shyly at the end. Right hand immediately moved to his nape which he scratched.

Not a good sign. Jack was nervous. But why? It was usually Hiccup who was stressed over this relationship’s problems and fiascos. Why now it felt like they switched places? When did it happen?

“You know, if you don’t want to do this, then we can simply sto-“

“No!” Jack shouted, moving closer, pushing, forcing himself into Hiccup’s personal bubble. He leaned forward with desperate, but clear certainty evaporating from his bright blue irises.

It had to be a spun of moment, some lose wires connecting, creating a short-circuit somewhere inside Jack’s body or maybe an error which occurred to human’s operating system. No, that was wrong. People weren’t machines. But it was so much easier for Hiccup to think it was some kind of a failure of a system, than Jack intentionally doing it.

He was close. Too close for comfort, yet there was something sad in the way Jack looked at him in this very short moment and in this one fast word he had shouted, that Hiccup didn’t even move back.

Maybe he should, because now their noses were almost touching and it was so… so awkward…

And Jack wasn’t even budging away!

“Uhm…” Okay, Hiccup didn’t know what had happened, but he had to clear it somehow. “Okay, so we are still… a thing.” He wanted to clear his throat, but then he would be coughing in Jack’s too close face. Seriously… “A fake-thing that-”

“Jack!”

Oh, Emma was shouting from the downstairs.

Jack blinked and then finally, finally moved away from Hiccup’s personal space.

“Yes!” He answered, also yelling loudly and darting his head upwards.

Hiccup brushed the fringe from his forehead with a trembling palm.

There were footsteps outside the room. A quick footsteps. Then the door swung open without even a sound of knocking.

Emma stood there with a wireless receiver of a landline phone in one hand. The other one was covering the mic, so less sounds would be heard on the other side. She immediately looked at Jack and oh, Hiccup had never seen her so… so distressed and… and angry? It wasn’t clearly visible on her face, but her chocolate eyebrows were furrowed and palms turned pale from too much force she used on something. Probably the phone she was currently holding. How it didn’t turn into bazillion particles by now was a miracle.

“What’s the problem, Em?” Jack asked, immediately standing up when his sister stepped into the room.

“This call is for you.” She said, maybe even stated robotically as she pushed the phone into his hand.

Jack glanced at the device and then took it away from her. There was a second or so of pause when Hiccup was honestly afraid that the girl would snatch the phone back, but she gave up and quickly loosened the strong grip she had on it.

“Okay.” Jack said softly, looking at his little sister with warmness spreading over his lips. “I got it.”

Emma wasn’t looking at him, but at the phone in Jack’s bigger hands. Her lips were pinched in thin, perfect line, almost like a linear function where gradient is zero.

Okay, definitely something was off here. Like majorly off.

Jack moved past Emma, patted her head in friendly, reassuring way and went out of the room. But before he stepped out, his smile dropped down. It looked like he knew who was on the other end of the call, even without asking.

“Hello?” Came a shushed response from Jack. The voice was followed by footsteps of him going down the stairs, away from them.

Emma was still in the room with arms hanging limply near her body, but palms clenched into tight fists. It took her three deep inhales and exhales to finally lift her face and notice Hiccup. She blinked, probably taken aback by his presence here, but the mischievous smirk quickly returned to her lips.

She looked better like that, Hiccup concluded.

“Oh, hey Hiccup. Didn’t know you were here. Sorry.”

Hiccup stood up from the ground too and brushed away the dust from his jeans.

“No problem.” He didn’t know Emma was home either, so that kind of made it even.

“How New Year has been treating you?” She asked immediately after his response. Wow, the chatty free spirit had to swim in the bloodline of Overlands. Seriously. Hiccup had problems with opening mouth when he had to order something or respond to the cashier, but neither Emma, Jack nor North had had problems with speaking to him on his first day here.

“Brutally. And how about you? How’s school?” Hiccup might at least try. Beside, Emma looked like she needed distraction right now.

She laughed at his response, then put her hands behind her back and swung on her heels.

“Boring and demanding. The worst combination.”

Hiccup chuckled at that.

“Too much homework?”

“And too much of irritating classmates!” Emma finished while cocking her head to the ceiling.

When Jack was social, Emma wasn’t. It wasn’t like she hated people, she just was easily pissed by some of them. She had a small group of friends, but usually she didn’t hang a lot around other people than them.

When Jack had told him about it, Hiccup had been quite surprised, because Emma looked so vivid, lively and full of energy that he couldn’t imagine this girl standing alone in the corner. In the end, it wasn’t like that. Emma only had a case of disliking some people – or many of them.

But it kind of looked like she liked him (or at least tolerated), so Hiccup was glad.

“Ugh, definitely the worst. I know a thing or two about irritating people.” Hiccup complied with small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Emma grinned broadly at that with compassion and understatement jumping in her chocolate eyes.

There was a pause filled with silence between them. Hiccup didn’t know exactly what to say and Emma didn’t look like she even wanted to say anything, content in being simply there. The shushed one-sided conversation was barely audible here. Hiccup could hear voice which sounded a lot like Jack, but was totally different in the same time.

Okay, Hiccup had to admit. The curiosity was eating him from inside. Or maybe it was like an acid which was dissolving his organs. Either way, he kind of wanted to know what this call was about. Jack looked so dejected about the simple idea of picking it up and it moved some string inside Hiccup’s chest. And Emma… Emma didn’t look any happier about her brother talking with whoever was on the other side. Maybe she looked even worse than Hiccup.

“Hey uhm…” Okay he was doing it. Gosh, here it goes. Total destruction. ”I know I maybe shouldn’t even ask about it, as it isn’t my problem. But I’m just curious.“ He clasped his hands together and start to play with his fingers, bending them in different angles. “With whom is Jack talking?”

The girl lifted her head at him and blinked, clearly confused.

“You don’t know?” She asked, even though it was kind of futile ask.

Hiccup laughed nervously and lifted his one eyebrow, which he hoped was enough for an answer.

Emma sighed and put her one hand behind her head, scratching the place here. She turned her head to the side and somehow she now was staring as the trees Hiccup had given Jack. She furrowed her eyebrows while nibbling on her cheek. Thin wrinkles appeared on her nose, but they softened when some resolve returned to her eyes.

“You don’t need to tell me.” Hiccup quickly said, lifting his hands.

“No, it’s not that. It’s not about telling you.” She said, at much slower speed than she usually spoke. Then a loud heavy sigh left her lips. “It was… Jack’s mother.”

Hiccup stared at Emma. Wait, what? Did he hear correctly?

“What?” Even though he was almost sure he heard correctly, he needed to hear it one more time. Just for confirmation.

Emma turned to him and repeated herself.

“Jack is talking with his mother.”

 

 

**Author's note**

 

Answers

RokuTsubasa – Oh no, don’t cry! D: Maybe… maybe everything will turn out okay for Jack in the end =D!?

Toffyy – I know xD!!

blitz_lili – Would you believe if I told you that sometimes I don’t even know what is happening with and in my story xD. I’m writing and I’m like “Oh, really?!” xDD. But the fuss around Aster’s name was actually planned beforehand xDDD. Omg thank you, you’re so nice!

Knife_cz – Damn, it would be nice to be paid for writing xD.

zerberus42 – Yay, I’m glad someone noticed it =D. I always loved these fluffy fanfics where nothing really happened, but you could simply feel the emotions emanating from them <3\. (Plus I’m really bad at writing smut xDD)

kew2759 – Shit, I’m sorry xD. But I’m glad you like my story (especially as it isn’t your fav pairing). Yeah, there’s not much of Toothless simply because I don’t know how to involve him more in the plot D: And yeah, unfortunately… it’s taking a lot to write one chapter… and it’s taking even more to check it haha xDDD. But I hope the wait was worth it. Hohoho, maybe you’re onto something, who knows, who knows <brush hands together, while laughing menacingly>  >:3. Oh you can ramble and ramble xD Your review made my day actually for which I’m grateful! Thank you and hope to see you again soon!

HisLadyshipTheFangirl – Aw yiss high five! Omg, that makes me really happy. Thank you <3!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally done! Huff. Damn it took way too long to finish it. But on the bright side – I decided to have a deadline! So I’ll try updating every two months (or maybe more often). Wish me luck!  
> And thank you Gio for checking the first few pages <3!
> 
> And nerd facts:  
> *Thorin – character from The Hobbit.  
> *Galadriel – character from The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. I don’t know why, but I really wanted to name one lilacs with this name.  
> *The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of unknown – H.P. Lovecraft  
> *Vacuum distillation – method of distillation whereby the pressure above the liquid mixture to be distilled is reduced to less than its vapor pressure (usually less than atmospheric pressure) causing evaporation of the most volatile liquid. I really, really hate this type of distillation. I mean, I know it is important and useful, but I have so many bad memories with it xD.  
> *Infrared, wavelength (…) – Hiccup was describing IR spectrum to Jack.  
> *Neil deGrasse Tyson – he has birthday on 5th of October.
> 
> Other facts:  
> *Not kissing during New Year’s Eve – to all who were expecting this… I’m sorry… I totally forgot about the New Year’s kiss… xD Missed a good opportunity.  
> *Lovesick Maiden – it is a painting by Jan Steen. It shows a young woman suffering from love-sickness surrounded by her doctor and a maid-servant.  
> *Mr. Honeynuts – character(?) from Camp Camp.
> 
> Hope to see you soon!


	12. Henry's law

**Henry's law** – the amount of dissolved gas is proportional to its partial pressure in the gas phase. The proportionality factor is called the Henry's law constant.

 

Hiccup stared at Emma, processing the words he just had heard.

Jack’s mother? Wait. Hiccup and Jack had talked about her. But what was her name? Something starting with a vowel. Maybe I? No, no, it was something different.

“When you said mother…” Hiccup started, only to lick his chapped lips in the middle. “You meant E-“ He prolonged the letter, hoping in his mind that Emma would catch a bait and help him there.

“Eris, yeah.” Emma huffed under her nose and looked away. It seemed like even mentioning the name was putting her in a bad mood. “Definitely not our mom. He never makes those faces when she calls.”

Hiccup internally sighed. So the ploy worked. Huff… At least he now knew with whom Jack was talking. Which didn’t actually help him that much.

From what he remembered, Jack’s mother (the biological one) was currently somewhere else, on another continent, working. And from what he had sensed when they had been talking about their parents, she and Jack didn’t have that great relationship. Well, today quite confirmed this suspicions.

Jack had looked like he didn’t really want to pick up the phone. Like it would suddenly grab him and eat whole or turn him into a stone or explode in his palm! He simple had looked uncomfortable about the simple idea of talking with the woman on the other side.

Hiccup would give a lot of things to be able to talk with his mother.

But his mom and Jack’s real one were two different people. He and Jack were two different humans.

Hiccup mulled the idea over in his head. On the outside he was biting his bottom lip and clenching and unclenching his fist.

Emma massaged her arm with her other palm and looked around the room. She also looked like she was thinking about something.

She finally turned to him and asked, with mischief shining in her eyes:

“Wanna eavesdrop on him?”

Hiccup actually didn’t want to do that. He was all about other people’s privacy. He respected other’s private lives and he wanted the same thing in return.

Well, Emma already grabbed his wrist and was dragging him quietly down the stairs.

Fuck his life.

The worst part of it? He didn’t even mind that much.

Would Jack even be still talking with her? He was gone for around five minutes already. How long are normal conversations supposed to last? Hiccup wasn’t that comfortable with talking through the phone, so he tried to avoid it as much as he could. With Astrid and Fishleg it was more over okay, but the rest…

Apparently Jack was still on the phone in the kitchen, if the light scattered on the floor coming from that room was any indication. His hums of approval were definitely more convincing.

Emma stepped onto the first floor, still holding tightly onto Hiccup’s wrist like she was afraid he would run back, if she let go. Maybe he would do it, maybe not. At this point he himself wasn’t even sure.

She moved to the wall and nodded at Hiccup to do the same.

Emma was still a kid. So a spy game it was.

They tiptoed to the open door to the kitchen and stopped near the doorframe. Gladly they weren’t casting any shadows on the floor, because that would sell them out immediately.

Emma put the fringe behind her ear and stepped closer, trying to listen in. Hiccup… Hiccup did too.

“Uhm, I don’t know…” Jack’s voice was hesitant. Hiccup had a vague image of his hand maneuvering to his nape to scratch the place nervously. He wondered if that was the case here. “I mean, I already-“ Oh, he stopped speaking. It looked like the person on the other side started talking. It lasted for a minute or so, until Jack added something on his own. “Can’t we move this to another date? Like only one day later?”

Emma furrowed her eyebrows and moved closer to the wall, even though it wouldn’t help at all.

Hiccup swallowed hard. It didn’t feel right to be here, sneaking around like some kind of criminal.

The curiosity and guilt were fighting inside his stomach. The emotions were bubbling, mixing and swirling in his body, one dominating, only to be at the losing place in the very next second. It was a wild reaction with unknown results.

Hiccup felt bad for being curious. He shouldn’t be acting like that. But Jack’s face, his behavior, his whole demeanor had pulled some string, had opened some weird program Hiccup hadn’t known he had inside his brain. It was only now booting up, beeping softly and installing features.

Hiccup was concerned for Jack.

So he remained in this place, even though his stomach was curled and twisted in almost, no, definitely, painful way.

Then there was a big sigh. Like Jack finally gave up on something, but it didn’t feel like the burden was taken away from his shoulders. It seemed like even more weight was put onto them.

When will those shoulders break?

“Okay, I will… I will ask him. And call you back.” Another pause filled with silence. “Okay, wait, let me find something to write on.” There was shuffling, two or three steps and the sound of clicking pen. “I got it.”

After that the scribbling and few hums of approval followed. Then Jack asked to repeat the number. The chair squeaked when he changed his position. So he was sitting.

“Okay, I call you later. Uhm, yeah…” There was a tired huff. “Okay, call you later. Bye.”

And then the sound of putting down phone resonated in the silent house. Only now Hiccup noticed that the building was quiet, still even – no turned on TV, no switched on radio, and almost no sounds coming from the outside world.

It was still kind of sad, that even though this house right now felt lonely and empty, it was still more warm than Hiccup’s own.

Wait, shouldn’t they move back, so Jack wouldn’t notice them?

Almost like Emma could read minds, she turned to him and pointed with his head at the stairs. Hiccup nodded and on their tiptoes they moved back to the stairs. Emma passed him by to be the first one in line.

Actually Hiccup was quite proud of himself for being unnoticed on his way down with well… with his leg.

The first four steps didn’t squeak under Emma’s feet, but now she was walking with extra caution due to the silence around the house. Another three steps were also good. The following two were muted too.

However Jack still said:

“I know you’re there, Em!”

Shit. They both froze. Then Emma turned around and she didn’t even look that surprised for being found out. She even rolled her eyes while sighing.

Then there were footsteps, combined with a shadow creeping on the light scattered on the floor. Few seconds later Jack emerged from the kitchen and leaned on the doorframe. He crossed his hands on his chest.

At first Hiccup expected for him to look moderately mad at them, because, well, eavesdropping private conversations was something bad to do. But Jack didn’t look even slightly angry. He looked… amused, a little bit relieved? Or maybe the last one was just a trick of light, or its lack in this case.

Then Jack’s blue eyes landed on Hiccup and the smile faltered for a second, only to return back even bigger. What did it mean? Was it bad?! Was it good!? Argh, it was complicated to read emotions in this darkness.

“You even dragged Hic with you.” He said. “You’re a bad influence on people, Emma.”

The girl groaned heavily. She let go of Hiccup’s wrist, which finally slumped down near his body.

“I learned from the best.” She countered Jack, putting one hand on her hip. Huh, sassy.

Jack lifted his eyebrow.

“No need to compliment me, young lady.”

“I wasn’t!” Emma huffed, leaning forward and adding another hand to her hip.

Jack grinned at her with that ever-knowing grin which meant he won this round. It looked like Emma totally hated it, because in the next second she was moaning and heaving loudly while looking up at the ceiling.

Then her voice softened and the angry glisten she had in her chocolate brown eyes disappeared, leaving place for something much more vulnerable.

“So what did she want?”

Jack blinked at that, probably not prepared for the sudden change in conversation (or the sibling bickering) they had just now. But then his hand moved to the back of his head and he shrugged in the same time.

“Ah, you know, the usual. How I am doing, how was school and all that…”

Emma nodded, more in acknowledgement that she heard him, than anything else.

“Is she going to visit?”

Jack twitched and for a brief moment his eyes jumped from his sister to Hiccup, who still stood there, not knowing what to do. Staying seemed bad, but walking away sounded even worse.

“Yeah…” He finally murmured. Emma hung her head. “Em, I know you don’t like her-“

“You’re right. I don’t like her. She is a bitch!”

Jack gasped. Hiccup froze.

“Emma!” The white haired teen said, not particularly raising his voice, but putting some sort of reprimanding tone in it. “Language!”

“It’s the truth! She’s a bitch! I don’t want to see her! I’m surprised you want to see her!” Her voice was wavering. She couldn’t keep the calm façade Jack was somehow still having on.

“Em!” Jack tried one more time, but was stopped.

“I can’t believe you!” Emma shouted and with that she turned around on her heels and ran upstairs to her room. The door was shut with a loud _bang!_ and Hiccup could even notice few pictures shivering.

After that there was silence around them. A heavy, dense silence which made it hard to breathe.

Yet it looked like Jack wasn’t fazed by it at all. He looked incredibly tired, exhausted, but not surprised by his sister’s behavior. And to underline Hiccup’s way of thinking, Jack only sighed loudly and put his hands on his waist.

“Sorry for her.” He said, glancing at Hiccup and trying to put on an apologetic smile on his lips. Hiccup wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to do that, but couldn’t find the voice in his throat. “She is always like that.”

Hiccup turned his head to stare at the upper floor where Emma had disappeared just few minutes ago. His heart – which had sped up previously – now was slowing down to a normal tempo and untangling the mess of wires made from stress inside his chest. It took some time, so when Hiccup finally found the strength to utter some words, Jack was already passing him by and tilting his head in the direction of his room.

“Are you going or what?” He asked, trying to sound playful. And the white haired teen even managed to do that. The grin on his face looked almost real.

Only his eyes were telling the truth. Emma’s behavior hurt him. And the fact that Jack had expected the conversation to end like that made Hiccup feel even more… empty.

His legs moved on their own as he followed Jack upstairs. For the whole short trip Jack didn’t turn back, nor he tried to start some kind of childish and joyful conversation. Hiccup couldn’t blame him.

Emma definitely wasn’t an angel. Starting from pranking Jack to ending on arguments they both had. Sometimes she had been mean to Jack – both in words and behavior. But most of those were normal siblings’ fights. Plus, everything had been back to normal in an hour or so, without the trace of the negativity even being there in the first place.

However this argument seemed different. Emma may act like she doesn’t care. Heck, hell whole behavior was centered around that cool image of being the ‘not-caring’ person. But the truth was different. She did care about her family – she was only doing it in different way, with snarky and mean comments that had the purpose of pushing you forward.

She was still a child and when something was too much for her, she just exploded.

Yet Hiccup felt like this worry, this anger, this incomprehension which erupted from Emma was a way of showing how much she cared for her brother and his best well-being. It was a twisted way to show feelings, but hey, nobody was perfect.

Which concluded to the final question – what Jack’s mother had done that Emma hated her so much?

Jack stepped into the room and waited for Hiccup to do the same, so he could close the door.

And before Hiccup’s brain could fully catch up with the rest of his body, his mouth was already moving, forming words:

“Your mother, what kind of person is she?”

Fuck, shit, did he say that out loud?

He definitely did, judging by Jack’s eyes widening suddenly.

Not good, not good. Why wasn’t there some kind of backspace key in real life? Or a time machine? Gosh, he wanted to jump back in time. Ten seconds would be enough!

“I mean… you don’t have to tell me… if you don’t want to…” Hiccup continued, brushing his arm with other hand in soothing manner. He casted his eyes down, not sure if he could stare at Jack right now.

There was a short pause, but this was enough for Hiccup to regret his multiple life choices. Shit, why, oh, why did he ask that? He shouldn’t ask such personal questions! But Jack looked so down and Hiccup was simply concerned about him and well… wanted to help somehow.

But how talking about it could help Jack!?

“I’m sorry, that was…”

“No, it’s okay!” Jack quickly said, raising his voice a little. The sound of it, maybe not made Hiccup jump, but definitely made him twitch. “I was just… surprised you asked.”

“Oh.” Hiccup mumbled in response. Clever. Very clever. “But still if you don’t want to tell me-”

“Now it sounds like you don’t want to hear it.” Jack said, crossing his arms, but with a playful smirk on his lips. Hiccup was glad the grin was there, because other way he would understand the sentence completely different.

“No, it’s not that. I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable, because… you know last time… it didn’t sound like you liked to talk about… her?” Hiccup lifted his hands, bending fingers in different angles. In the end he pointed them at Jack, rising his eyebrows in an unspoken question if the explanation was enough.

The white haired teen shook his head with the smirk forming into a gentler, kinder one. He slowly moved to the bed and slumped down on it. His upper body was laying down, but legs were resting on the floor.

Hiccup observed him, not really sure what to do, until Jack patted the place next to him. Sighing, Hiccup sat and then laid down

The snowflakes on the threads glued to the ceiling swirled softly above them, pushed around by the breeze coming from the tilted window. Funny how Hiccup didn’t feel cold, even though the window was opened.

Hiccup stole a glance at the half-laying Jack. His chest was moving slowly up and down and his eyes were closed. He looked peaceful, calm, tranquil – like he was even sleeping. And for a brief second Hiccup almost believed that was the case.

But then Jack opened his eyes and started speaking.

“My mother… I mean Eris is specific – in lack for a better word. She always has been like that.” There was a pause. It looked like Jack searched for proper words. “She isn’t a bad person, but well, I wouldn’t call her good either actually. I mean, maybe she was a better person way before she had me, or, I don’t know, she didn’t show the good part that much to me in the end. She had to have some good traits or something like that because other way North and she wouldn’t have me, but…”

Jack was rambling. It rarely happened. Usually it was Hiccup who was doing it. And people often called it cute. But the way Jack rambled now was different. Like he had some bad thought inside his head and he desperately wanted to excuse himself for feeling that way. And maybe it was the truth, not only a hunch.

Either way, Hiccup didn’t like it.

“Jack!” Hiccup raised his voice a little to get the teen’s attention. It did the trick, because Jack stopped midway through some sentence to look at him. “It’s okay. There is nothing bad in having a bad opinion of someone, even if it’s your own mother. No one will judge you because you said a bad thing about her. Especially if she deserved it.”

Jack blinked, but then slowly nodded, looking almost reassured by Hiccup’s words.

Hiccup felt very proud after that. Or well, the swelling feeling inside his chest seemed like proudness. Anyway, it felt nice.

“Okay…” Jack confirmed, then took a deep breath. “Okay, so she isn’t totally bad, but she is kind of bad? Like she acts like she cares, but you know she doesn’t. She rarely calls and when she does, she is almost always speaking and it is so hard to get through to her.” Then there was a chuckle. “You probably heard it actually.”

Hiccup felt warmness spreading through his cheeks at the mention of their eavesdropping.

“A little bit.” Hiccup shrugged, which only made the quilt wrinkle near his shoulders.

“And when we meet she almost always talks about herself or scolds me for everything.” Jack huffed and his hand twitched, but didn’t move up. Due to laying down, Jack couldn’t scratch the back of his nape. A nervous habit he had. “And well, of course I’m curious about her life, but not that hard? I mean I could say ‘ _Hey mom, I started doing crack and smoked a pot with Bunny yesterday_ ’ and she still would be like ‘ _That’s great Jackie, but you know that my friend wrote a really terrible article about pots!_ ’”

Uh ouch, this didn’t sound that good actually. Or good at all.

Hiccup didn’t know how to comment that, other than ‘ _she doesn’t sound like a good person_ ’ (which he didn’t want to say out loud), but gladly Jack continued.

“And I mean, okay, fine! But it still sounds like she knows nothing about me. When I’m speaking with Tara, she always looks so interested in my life, but Eris is not like that. She was never like that! She always had problems with my behavior. Everything I did was wrong to her.”

And after that came silence. Jack didn’t exactly burst out per so, only raised his voice by an octave or so. But it was enough to make him realize something.

Hiccup could only stare from the corner of his eyes at Jack’s moving chest, at his suddenly quick rises and falls, at his half opened mouth, at his blinking eyes, now doing it way faster than earlier.

Fuck, should Hiccup do something? What to do, what to do, what the fuck should he do? Say something? Clear his throat?

Why exactly was Jack living with North and not with Eris?

There has to be something else, something more to this story. But after the last sentence, it didn’t look like Jack wanted or felt comfortable talking about it yet.

What to do? What would Jack do in similar situation?

Personal contact. Hiccup hated it – hugs, brushes, small touches here and there, pecks on cheeks. It wasn’t bringing him any comfort, on the contrary actually. But Jack loved it, almost needed it for being able to live normally.

And it really looked like he needed it right now.

So with heavy beating heart, Hiccup brushed his hand on the quilt in search for Jack’s own palm. He found it laying few centimeters away. The skin was cold, which was weird, because even though Jack loved the freezing weather, his hands were always warm. But not now.

He had to be stressed. But he opened some part of his heart to Hiccup. And he wanted to help.

So Hiccup put his palm on Jack’s one.

For one slow beat of the heart he was terrified that the teen would move away, or that Jack would suddenly turn his head to him and ask what he was doing. But nothing like this happened.

Actually, Jack turned his palm over and intertwined their fingers together, clenching a tiny bit too strongly Hiccup’s hand. He didn’t look back at Hiccup, but the blinking stopped.

Hiccup took it as a success. A little bit embarrassing and kind of uncomfortable success. But it was a win in the end nevertheless.

It took few seconds, maybe even minutes, for the rises and falls of Jack’s chest to have a peaceful rhythm. Only then Jack opened his mouth one more time.

“I don’t want to see her and I do both in the same time.” He said, hoarsely. Then he laughed, or coughed. Or coughed-laughed. “Actually, funny story ahead.” Oh boy. “She wants to meet on my birthday. Which is the same day as Valentine’s Day.” The free hand moved up and landed on Jack’s face, which he massaged groggily. “And I told her I have plans already with you, but then she said to bring you with me.”

What. The. Fuck.

“And then I told her I would ask you, so yeah…” Jack huffed, brushing the fringe higher. His thumb started to massage the back of Hiccup’s palm.

He wondered if Jack was conscious of this fact.

Hiccup actually didn’t know how to answer that. Making Jack’s birthday plans was one thing, making Valentines’ plan was other thing, but meeting Jack’s mother on the same day was totally different.

Plus, she definitely will think that there is something between them. Come on! Hiccup doubted that she will believe them that they were just friends after they had made plans for Valentine’s Day and Jack’s birthday.

And it was bad. Because if Jack’s mother think that there is something between them, then she can tell North and…

Neither Jack nor Hiccup wanted to lie to their families.

Hiccup glanced at Jack and bit his lip. The other teen wasn’t looking at him, but at the ceiling and softly swishing around snowflakes.

Hiccup wasn’t mad at Jack for saying that he already had plans. He was kind of even glad that Hiccup was the first person Jack had kinda of turned to in search for help. But it sort of messed up and complicated everything.

Well the plan was going too perfectly, so yeah, Hiccup wasn’t that surprised that something had to disturb the peacefulness. But honestly he didn’t know what to do in this situation.

Neither option was good. Every one had pros and cons of the consequences. However it wasn’t Hiccup who should decide it, but Jack. It was his mother, not Hiccup’s.

But Hiccup will be with him, no matter which way Jack will choose. Hiccup owed him that much. No… he didn’t want to do it, because Hiccup owed Jack. He wanted to do it just because. No higher reason. He wanted to help, to do something to put a true, honest smile on Jack’s lips.

Hiccup tightened softly the grip on Jack’s palm, which made the teen look back at him.

“Jack, I’m sorry, but I can’t choose for you.” He said, licking his lips first. “It’s your family and you have to decide whether you want to see her or not.” Jack was staring at him intently, listening to every word he was speaking. “But no matter what you choose, I will follow you.”

Jack’s blue eyes widened for a second, maybe less, or maybe longer. The light appeared – it was a supernova – a sudden, bright explosion of warmness, reassurance, calmness and everything in between.

Jack returned the grip slowly and smiled. It wasn’t a full smile, it was only a small twitch of the corners of pale lips. But it was enough.

“Thanks, Hic. I… really appreciate it.”

Hiccup grinned softly.

“But tell me earlier what you’ll decide on, so I can mentally prepare myself for it.”

This made Jack chuckle lightly.

“I will.”

After that Jack sat up and let go of Hiccup’s hand.

Oh yeah, they had been holding hands. Shit. Was he sweating a lot? Hiccup brushed his fingers to check. No, they weren’t that wet. Gladly. It would be weird if he was sweating profusely while he only tried to lift someone’s spirit up.

And even though it was pretty (a lot, his mind added) awkward, it did the trick.

Although now Hiccup wasn’t sure which emotion was bigger – proudness or embarrassment.

“Anyway I still think we should have some back-up plan for Valentine’s Day.” Hiccup said after a while, when Jack didn’t respond, filling the sudden odd void which appeared between them. Or maybe only Hiccup felt it, because Jack didn’t look fazed at all.

“Oh, okay. What do you think we should do then?” Jack answered, not missing a beat.

And well… Hiccup didn’t actually know what they should do.

Shit.

* * *

Jack looked at the screen of his computer and sighed heavily. Okay, he could do it. An hour ago his heart was still a skipping, crazy mess inside his chest – a fact that didn’t help him play this quite stressful level.

He turned off the menu screen and started the level once again. This time his fingers were maybe not moving perfectly, but methodically and rhythmically. He only got hit twice, which was good, in comparison to being hit five times, what had happened previously. His right hand moved more firmly, pointing his attack in a right direction, instead of hitting trees, once again like last time.

It definitely took much longer than this mission was supposed to take, but Jack didn’t mind. At least today, erm... this evening. He needed some stress relieve. Because, yes, spending time alone with Hiccup had been quite a lot of work for his poor heart.

Jack had enjoyed it, of course he did, but he still needed to calm down after that.

And what was better than playing games in a dark room, full after a great dinner.

Well almost great, because Emma had stolen her plate quickly as soon as she had seen Jack in the kitchen. North had looked at Jack, hoping for an answer which Jack had provided. In form of one word. Eris. And North had only nodded at him after that.

Jack loved how North was so understanding in this matter (or in many, many other matters too).

He checked the time. Damn, near 11 pm. Quite late, but somehow Jack had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep so quickly tonight, due to all that had happened.

Hiccup had held his hand! Like, Jack knew it wasn’t in a romantic way. Hiccup had tried to help to get rid of the panic which slowly had found its way to Jack’s brain. And he had succeeded. For what Jack was very, very thankful.

But his heart still skipped a beat when the smudge of the memory appeared inside his mind.

Jack had no chance with Hiccup, but at least he got himself a friend who cared – to this point of breaking through some personal limits to make him feel better.

With a happy grin, Jack’s character passed the last line and the saving screen appeared on the monitor.

Jack moved away from the desk and raised his hands above his head, stretching and sighing loudly.

After that came a soft knock on the door.

“Come in!” Jack said, without even looking away.

The door squeaked softly. This sound was followed by few footsteps and then… silence.

Jack turned to the guest.

He actually expected to see North there, asking whether he wanted something special for breakfast or if he had seen some missing thing that definitely was simply put in a drawer of North’s night stand. However it wasn’t his father who stood in the doorway, but Emma.

It took him a second to take off his headphones and turn on the chair, giving his sister full attention.

“Hey Em, what’s the matter?” He asked, softly, steadily and kindly.

Emma was looking down at the carpet beneath her bare feet. Toes moved, twitched nervously. Hands were wrinkling the shirt of her pajamas, with rocket drawn on the front. Eyebrows were furrowed, with tiny wrinkles folding on her nose.

Jack expected this. Well, no, that was wrong. Emma always apologized after her outburst, but usually in the middle of doing something, whether it was eating the dinner or going together with Jack to school. She was only apologizing officially when she had done something really bad. Her outburst today hadn’t been half as bad as it could be. It had been actually pretty mild.

“I’m sorry Jack, for yelling at you today.” She finally said, glancing up. Her eyes were almost covered by the brown fringe, but Jack could see the softness beaming from them.

“It’s okay. I understand.” It was their tradition.

Some people maybe would say it was bad that Emma wasn’t learning from her mistakes. However for Jack it wasn’t a mistake. Emma’s feelings were real – even when they were negative. It didn’t matter. At least she was honest with herself and with Jack. He knew she wasn’t apologizing for her negative emotions, but for making Jack feel sad.

And… well, Jack was kind of glad she was still getting angry at Eris. It showed that she still cared as deeply as she had been all this time they had been together.

Emma nodded.

“So when she’s coming?”

“Uhm around my birthday, I think.” Jack answered. Actually Eris hadn’t told him when she would be arriving, but when she wanted to meet up with Jack. Well, at this point Jack wasn’t even surprised. “What, are you planning to go camping in the middle of winter if she wants to come over?”

At this Emma finally fully raised her head and snorted. The evil smirk returned to her lips. Jack definitely preferred them turned upwards, than pinched into that thin line.

“Ah, of course, my dear bro already knows what I was planning. Now I need to come up with another, better plan.” She scoffed playfully, then after a second stepped inside and flopped down on the bed.

Jack swirled around on his chair to face her.

“You can always crash at one of your friends’ house for that evening. If she even come to our house, that is.” Jack added, putting his bent elbow on his knee and resting his chin on his palm.

Emma swung her feet.

“Maybe I can spend the night at the Railway Station!” She said, glancing at him.

“No, no spending night at any Railway Station!” From where did she get that idea?

Emma chuckled.

“But still sorry for yelling at you in front of Hiccup.”

“Oh yeah, I think you scared him more than me actually.”

At this Emma looked kinda embarrassed. If her glancing away for a split-second was any indication.

“Oh, sorry… didn’t mean to actually.” She said, nibbling at the brown lock she put in her mouth.

Jack waved his hand, like he wanted to brush away the guilt swarming around Emma’s head. He knew Hiccup wasn’t mad – terrified, of course, but not mad. Plus it was kind of funny actually.

“All is good. Well, maybe not good, but not bad either. It was kind of funny how scared he looked after your outburst.”

At this Emma flushed so hard to this point that Jack wouldn’t be surprised if steam started pouring out from her ears. It would be horrifying, but amusing both in the same time.

Emma mumbled another quiet apologize. Or at least it sounded like that, but the lock in her mouth and barely parted lips disturbed every sound. However Jack didn’t mind. The only thing that mattered was Emma trying to be honest. He knew she was stubborn and it was hard for her to confess to making mistakes. So Jack treasured every moment like this one.

Also it felt good to know she was trying to be honest, especially with him – her half big brother.

After that there was a small pause where Emma swung her feet. Then, after few seconds, she lifted her head and hit Jack with the biggest bomb ever.

“So are you and Hiccup together or…?”

What. The. Heck.

His brain stopped working and, honestly, Jack had a feeling he heard a Windows shutting down sound somewhere at the back of his head. It took some time, maybe in reality not so much, for him to understand that what Emma was implicating actually left her lips.

“Why… Why would you think that?” Jack asked and fuck, he really stuttered. His hand automatically moved to his nape.

Emma blinked. Actually, she didn’t look grossed out or surprised. Maybe mildly curious? Yeah, that was a good word to use here.

“Because I wanted to apologize to you earlier, but you… you both were laying down on the bed holding hands, so I thought about the most logical reason for you doing that.”

Jack groaned and then hid his face in his palms. Fuck. Did Emma really had to see this moment? It wasn’t like he was embarrassed of Hiccup helping him through his panic attack (could he even call it that?). He was kind of afraid of trying to explain it to her. Mostly because he was afraid she could see right through him.

“So are you or?” Emma mussed, humming softly and finally getting the lock out of her mouth.

Jack let his hands fall down onto his lap as he leaned back on his chair.

“No, we aren’t.”

“Oh, okay.”

Simple as that. And because of that Jack now only gaped at his sister like a fish out of water.

“What?” Emma asked, looking at him unperturbed.

“Nothing. You just took it in so easily. Without any more explanation.”

Emma shrugged.

“I mean, it’s your life. If you want to hold Hiccup’s hand without any romantic feelings behind it then it’s fine with me. I just wanted to make sure that I won’t say something stupid next time he’ll visit.”

“O-okay…” Jack said, honestly and truly baffled by his sister’s words.

The girl then stood up.

“I’m off to bed.” She said, moving to the open door.

Jack followed her with his gaze, still perplexed by Emma’s words from few minutes, no, even seconds ago.

She turned in the doorway and sent him a tired grin. It kind of looked like she wanted to make it a little bit evil, but the emotion got lost somewhere in the middle of going to the nerves. So only a tired smirk came out.

“G’night, Jack.”

“Sleep tight, Em.” Jack responded, not missing a beat.

And with that his sister exited the room, leaving him alone in the darkness, with the only light coming from the monitor screen and the lamp standing on the desk.

Jack turned to his computer, but he only moved the keyboard away so he could rest his warm face on the cold surface. Honestly. He wasn’t sure what had surprised him the most – Emma finding them holding hands or her quick understatement of the situation. Actually Jack kind of expected her to make fun of him, but she didn’t. He knew that it didn’t mean she wouldn’t point it out to tease him later, but right now she understood. And this was what mattered.

* * *

The first week of February passed in the blink of an eye. Especially for Hiccup.

Between school, chemistry labs and working on his project he rarely had some free time for himself. Or maybe he was simply stressed over upcoming Valentine’s Day. And the dinner with Eris – Jack’s mother.

Because yesterday Jack had called him to inform Hiccup that the dinner was happening.

Fuck. Of course, Hiccup wouldn’t back away from the promise, but this didn’t mean he couldn’t get stressed over this situation. Especially as it definitely will be awkward as hell.

He hoped that Eris won’t ask him too many questions. Especially what was connecting him and her son.

The fact that Jack’s birthday was on the same day wasn’t helping. It was now a week away and he still didn’t have a present for his fake-boyfriend. But at least they had formed a plan for Valentine’s Day. A little bit cliché, but kind of adorable? Okay, Hiccup simply was kind of excited? He never really… celebrated this day with anyone – not counting Astrid and Fishlegs. But their previous Valentine’s Days had been spent in Hiccup’s room, eating chocolate and laughing at bad comedies.

The plan wasn’t much. Jack had said that he will décor Hiccup’s locker and Hiccup will give him chocolate. Simple, but enough for the both of them. And they had planned to do it before classes, so they wouldn’t have to worry for the whole day and focus instead on the dinner with Eris.

But right now he had more present problems to deal with. Another tutoring session with Dagur.

And, to be honest, Hiccup had to admit that the teen was good in what he was teaching Hiccup. His project was looking better and better with every meeting and slowly, step after step, Hiccup wasn’t feeling like he was walking blindly in the fog.

The meetings were still dreadful and stressful, but less than the first few ones.

So this time it didn’t take Hiccup as much time as usually to calm down and walk into the Professor Robinson’s hall.

And as usual, Dagur was there, swirling around in their teacher’s chair. At first Hiccup had thought that Professor would say something to Dagur when he had seen him doing the same for the very first time, but the male only had chuckled and done nothing. So Hiccup definitely won’t point out that it is a little bit rude.

Dagur lifted his face from his phone when he heard Hiccup entering.

“Sup.” He said, tapping something on the screen.

“Hey.” Hiccup murmured, stepping closer and taking off his backpack.

He grabbed one chair and sat on it, keeping his eyes locked on the wooden surface of the desk between them. Few times Hiccup glanced at Dagur, but quickly looked down, when he saw any of the teen’s muscles move.

The atmosphere around them was definitely awkward. However Dagur didn’t look influenced by it, or he was pretty good at hiding it. Both options seemed possible. His eyes were mostly glued to the screen of his phone.

Or at least until Dagur opened his mouth.

“You know-“

However he was interrupted by the sound of an opening door and Professor Robinson jumping out of it. He looked around, like a deer caught in a headlight, and then finally focused on them. The smile was still there, but smaller than usual. Uh-oh.

“Oh, good, you both are here.” He said, stepping closer and putting his hands on the desk. "Sorry, but I need you to work somewhere else today. I think the library is still open.” He stated, sending them now an apologetic grin. “I thought my dentist appointment was scheduled for tomorrow, but apparently I have it like in fifteen minutes.” Then he moved his wrist up and glanced down at the watch he had there. “Make it fourteen.”

Hiccup nodded and stood up. Dagur did the same.

“No problem.” The older teen said, putting both his hands inside the pockets of his blouse and shrugging in the process.

Hiccup had kinda different opinion, but he didn’t want to cause problems for his favourite teacher, so he only grabbed the folder with his project.

“Really? Thank you so much!” The blond haired teacher beamed and clasped his hands together. After that he only ran to his office to grab his coat and briefcase. Then the three of them walked out of the hall with Professor Robinson closing the door after them. “See you later then, boys!” And with that he almost ran to the exit.

Leaving the two of them alone in the corridor.

Shit.

Hiccup gulped down and glanced at his shoes. What to do? He didn’t want to be alone with Dagur. He knew the librarian will be in the library, so there won’t be just the two of them there. Plus it looked like Dagur respected their teacher.

The older teen sighed and Hiccup immediately tensed.

“Let’s go.” Dagur mumbled, turned on his heel and stomped away.

The auburn haired boy walked few steps behind Dagur, but his head was lifted so he was able to stare at the other teenager’s back.

Just because he got a little bit more comfortable around Dagur, with Professor Robinson’s presence lurking around, it didn’t mean he was totally okay with spending time with him on his own. Okay, maybe Dagur wasn’t acting like his usual douchy self, but…

Yeah, there always were some ‘buts’ hiding in the corners of his mind. With Dagur Hiccup never was one hundred percent sure what could happen. It wasn’t nice to think like that, but well, he had lived through some difficult times with the teen, so he had reasons to not fully trust him.

Their journey to the library was gladly not long. And they only passed like one student on their way there.

Inside the library there were only a librarian and two more people reading books while sitting near long tables. The woman behind the counter lifted her head, but then quickly looked down.

Heh, okay, that was weird. Usually Dagur was spreading terror wherever he went. People who were not his friends were moving away when he was walking through corridors with a frown on his face. Yet the librarian paid him no mind. Was it possible that she didn’t hear one thing about the dreadful teen? Or was she just that badass? Or crazy? Or both.

“Are you coming or what?”

Hiccup jumped and turned to the teen who was now good few feet away. He quickly sped up, catching up with the other one in three long steps.

They moved to a different part of the library – a place where students could learn together and work on their projects. The adjacent room to the main library was filled with much more tables and less book shelves. Under one wall stood three desks and every one was equipped with a computer. They weren’t maybe new, but were good enough when you had to calculate something quick in Excel or change your PowerPoint project at the very last minute.

Currently there was no one in this room. Hiccup’s luck.

Dagur moved to the first table and threw his things which landed on the ground with a heavy thump. Hiccup followed in his steps, setting his backpack aside more gently. After that he put the folder on the desk and with trembling hands tried to untie the knot.

The fact that he felt Dagur’s gaze on himself wasn’t really helping.

After few tries Hiccup finally was able to open the folder and take out sheets filled with sketches of his project, some ideas and other blueprints. Only for him to lose a grip on them. Two sheets of paper immediately ran away from the table and landed near Dagur’s military boots. Great.

Hiccup felt his cheeks heating up, but definitely not in the nice way.

The taller teen leaned and grabbed the fallen sheets from the floor. He spread them over the surface, slower than usual.

“Okay, where did we finish last time?”

* * *

 

Hiccup was a nervous mess halfway through their tutoring session.

Currently Dagur was looking at the connected pieces of metal and plastic Hiccup had managed to make. Before he had brought the project to school he had felt pretty accomplished with himself, but right now… he wasn’t so sure.

His wildly beating heart wasn’t making this situation any better. It was so terrible that at some point his chest started to ache. Not a good sign.

Could he faint from stress?

Dagur stared at the connections between metals. He looked at every screw Hiccup had used. He checked if the plastic parts weren’t cracked in important places. He hummed when he tried to move two rods which were supposed to move, but did it with a squeaking sound.

Oh yeah, Hiccup forgot about that.

Even though he didn’t want to stare at Dagur, he was kind of interested in his reactions. But also terrified.

Due to the fact that after he and Jack had started fake-dating Dagur had stopped pestering him, now he wasn’t sure how to react. The teen didn’t show any hints that he was about to start doing it again, but still… Hiccup was scared that it could happen again.

Dagur put Hiccup’s project down, then he leaned on the chair’s back and crossed his hands. He closed his eyes and for few moments he didn’t speak, nor made any movements, totally lost in some kind of thoughts concerning Hiccup’s project. At least Hiccup thought so.

After a minute or so, he opened his eyes.

“It looks okay, but…”

Of course, there were always some ‘buts’.

“… You should oil the moving parts, so they won’t squeak so loud. I also advise to oil the screws in case they want to start corroding. The project need to be all shiny for the presentation.”

“O… okay.” Hiccup mumbled.

This seemed logical enough. He actually didn’t think about it that hard. The presentations were around two months and a half away, but yeah, he should keep the metals pieces in perfect shape. Other way the consequences could be terrible.

Hiccup looked up at Dagur who was staring at him expectantly. What was he supposed to do more? Oh, yeah, grab his project and hide it back into his backpack.

Slowly, with trembling hands, Hiccup reached for his not even half-way done project.

There was a smudge in the corner of his eyes, behind the glasses, where he saw some quick movement. It was as fast as jumping electrons. In one moment Dagur was sitting normally, swinging at the back legs of his chair and in the other he hit loudly the table’s surface with his hands and leaned forward.

Hiccup wasn’t sure what startled him the most in this situation. The sound, Dagur’s speed, or memories flashing through his head. It all happened in the blink of an eye. And the only thing Hiccup managed to do was yelp and let go of his project, which he had already picked up. His small robot clattered onto the desk and rolled for few centimeters, but gladly didn’t fall down.

Yet the sound of it falling down and hitting the wooden surface was blocked by Hiccup’s own loudly pounding heart.

Dagur was leaning above the desk, staring, almost glaring right at Hiccup.

And he… he didn’t like it. These eyes, cunning, dangerous – shining irises were drilling holes into Hiccup’s own mind, almost desperately searching for something.

_Badum, badum, badum…_

There was a buzzing sound resonating in his ears. His mouth was dry. His limbs froze in place.

Then Dagur opened his mouth and asked, no, hissed to him:

“What is wrong with you?”

And Hiccup’s brain had to be restarted.

What was wrong with him? It wasn’t Hiccup who suddenly jumped onto his feet, only to slap his hands on the desk! It wasn’t Hiccup who looked like an animal, ready to pounce someone! It wasn’t Hiccup who was sending daggers through his gaze at someone sitting right in front of him.

And Dagur was asking what was wrong with him?

The knot inside his throat loosened up at the pure inexplicability of this situation.

“Excuse me?” Hiccup asked, lifting his one eyebrow and feeling his heart slowing down. The desk was still between them. Not to mention Hiccup was closer to the door than Dagur.

“You heard me. What is wrong with you today?” Dagur repeated, much slower, like he was just explaining something to a kid, still with venom dripping from the end of sentence.

Hiccup was perplexed. It was probably pretty visible on his face, because the older teen continued.

“You acted normally around me, but today you’re acting like a fucking scaredy-cat. You’re fidgeting all over the place and you can’t focus on one simple thing!”

This was really happening?

If this was really happening, then Hiccup definitely jumped into some alternative dimension. Was Dagur seriously angry at Hiccup for being scared to spend some alone time with him?

This was like… totally fucked up. This was bizarre, unbelievable and messed up.

Because Dagur, of all people, shouldn’t be the one to point that one out. Especially when he was the core of Hiccup’s nerves’ problems.

“Are you for real?”

Shit, wait, what? Did he seriously just say that out loud? Did he really let it slip past his lips? Like for real?

Dagur’s suddenly surprised face, with half opened mouth and wide eyes, confirmed that Hiccup indeed say that out loud.

The taller teen’s eyebrow twitched and he growled out, yet with little to no force:

“What?”

“You can say shit about my behavior around you after you treated me like garbage!” Hiccup wanted to find some comparison to the situation they both had, but found none. Or rather he found way too many and not one of them sounded good in his head – even though it was the honest truth. “You abused me to the point of me having almost panic attacks just thinking about meeting you, and you suddenly tell me not to be nervous around you?” Hiccup chuckled darkly, feeling, sensing the inverse of the situation. “Are you seriously that crazy? Are you even listening to what you’re saying?”

Now it was time for Dagur to move away, eyes still big as two moons. And maybe if Hiccup wouldn’t be so furious about this whole conversation, he would notice the small things about Dagur he didn’t notice nor care to notice until now. How his shoulders slumped down, how his eyes jumped from his face to the floor, how his hands twitched, still splattered on the desk.

But Hiccup had no time for such unimportant details right now.

“I-“ Dagur started, only to be interrupted by Hiccup once again.

“You what? You thought that I would forget all about it if you just acted a little bit nicer to me? You thought that maybe I would act like nothing happened?” Then Hiccup looked at Dagur, feeling being the one in charge for the very first time. Now it wasn’t him who was quivering in fear from Dagur, it was almost the opposite. It was Dagur who was backing away, looking at him with this something frustrating sparkling in his eyes.

And it was horrible, but at first it felt good to be the one at top. To be the one holding all strings. But the good feelings disappeared, as quickly as they appeared when Hiccup simply started to feel bad.

It wasn’t like him. It wasn’t who Hiccup really was. He wasn’t this type of person who was making people feel afraid of him.

Hiccup blinked when he saw some confusion clearly painted on the other teen’s face. But the confusion was not the only feeling emanating from this façade.

“Oh my god, were you really thinking that?” Hiccup asked, now way quieter. He made a step back and combed his one hand through his now messy auburn locks.

At this Dagur literally looked away.

No, Hiccup couldn’t deal with it. It was all too much. He needed some cold air to help him think coherently. Very needed cold breeze to soothe the heat emanating from his cheeks – now fuming with unnatural for him rage.

Hiccup grabbed his things and shoved them into the backpack, together with his unfinished project.

“I’m going.” Hiccup said, not looking up while zipping his backpack. He couldn’t stay in this room any longer. He knew they weren’t even in the middle of their tutoring session, but it was too much. “See you later.” He added, in the middle of throwing his backpack onto his back and moving to the exit.

He could see Dagur’s eyes following him, but other than that he made no movement to stop him or… just do something.

Hiccup left the room and stormed quickly through the main hall, nodding only at the librarian while exiting.

The hallway gladly was empty. No one could see as Hiccup almost ran to the door, bursting through it in one quick shove.

The cold, freezing air was the sweetest thing he felt for the whole day. It almost immediately lowered the temperature in his cheeks, slowing down the pace of his rapidly beating heart.

However he couldn’t stop here. He didn’t want to stay here. He had to move. So he did. He walked now at much slower pace in the direction of his home. Only when he was far away enough from the school, his mind caught up with everything he had said and heard.

Because, honestly, he still couldn’t believe it. Dagur had to be delusional if he thought that Hiccup could simply forget about everything that had happened between them. And why now? Why suddenly he stopped acting like that? What made him change?

Hiccup couldn’t understand – some part of him didn’t even want to comprehend what it all meant. But the other one was curious, it wanted, needed to know the reason behind all these changes.

No, he shouldn’t mingle in it. Dagur never brought anything good in his life. It was almost on a contrary – the only thing Dagur reminded him about were bad times, full of embarrassment and pain, still resonating somewhere in his body. Maybe Dagur changed, but he could also revert back. And Hiccup didn’t want to be near him if this happened.

Of course, if…

Hiccup nibbled on his bottom lip in the same time slowing down his pace.

There was a chance of Dagur never returning to his former self. He could stay being this new him – kind of weird, still with a lot of his old self creeping somewhere in the dark eyes. It could be an one way reaction. But it could be also a reaction that could be reversed. And Hiccup didn’t know the equilibrium constant* of this specific metamorphosis.

He was this person who was all up for giving second chances. He also could understand not being able to give second chances.

But right now he wasn’t sure if he was still a part of the first group.

* * *

 

_Are you nervous? ;)_

Was he nervous?

Jack glanced at his shaking hands. Yep, he definitely was nervous. And terrified. But also kind of excited? But still mostly stressed.

For a brief second he thought about lying, but in the end he decided against it.

_A little bit? (_ _☍_ _﹏_ _⁰)_

Jack looked at the bag he had already packed. Few pink streamers were hanging on its side, similar to ivy on an old building. All supplies needed for decorating Hiccup’s locker were already hidden.

But he wasn’t sure whether he was stressed over that. He actually really doubted it. He was more nervous about the dinner. With his mother. And with Hiccup.

Yesterday Eris had called once again to give details about a restaurant. She even had pointed out what Jack should wear to such place. At that Jack only had rolled his eyes. Demanding as ever, even when they weren’t living together anymore.

Gladly.

In just few – give or take – hours he will see his mother again in like… three years?

This was both awfully long and short time to not meet up with your own biological mother. But to be honest Jack didn’t really miss her that much. And to be even more terrible he would be perfectly fine with not seeing her. At all.

He didn’t have quite good memories of his childhood and he wasn’t keen on relieving those. Like at all. He was fed up with listening to her harsh words, being under her scrutinizing gaze and having to deal with her boasting.

She was always like that – trying to make herself look better. Even though she wasn’t. Especially around people.

Jack was glad Hiccup had decided to go with him. This way he won’t feel so alone and his mother won’t pester him about how _not-ideal_ Jack was. If she stop talking about herself, that is. Maybe she shouldn’t stop talking about her perfect self.

Maybe this way tomorrow evening won’t end in a disaster.

* * *

 

_I’m sure he’ll love it :*_

_I hope so._

Hiccup stared at the game laying on his lap with wrapping paper next to it. Half of the gift was already wrapped in the colorful paper with adorable cupcakes. The rest was almost done too. However he wasn’t the best in this kind of things, so the wrapping looked a little bit… askew.

He wasn’t even sure whether it was a good idea for a present. Jack had told him few times about this game. And from what he had caught Jack had really wanted to play it, but hadn’t had money to buy it. So Hiccup had done it for him.

But of course, beforehand, he had to make background survey. To check if Jack really didn’t have it. Aster had helped a lot in this term, although at first Hiccup hadn’t been so sure whether he should ask him for help or not.

There was something weird in asking your crush to help you buy present for your fake-boyfriend.

This totally sounded like some dumb chick-flick movie’s plot.

But Aster quickly had checked the background and had denied Hiccup’s suspicions. Jack still didn’t have the game, didn’t order it and didn’t plan to do it in the next two weeks, no matter how sad he was about it.

Hiccup had also asked Astrid about his gift’s ideas and she had been very… very excited about it actually. Which was weird. But at this point Hiccup decided that _weird_ was his New Year’s agenda.

Hiccup sighed and grabbed the wrapping paper, feeling his heart jump high into his throat. He was pretty excited about tomorrow. Yeah, he knew it was dumb – they both were playing some kind of act in definitely strange play. However it still felt nice. Even if this was all a part of a plan. Hiccup never really had celebrated Valentine’s Day – because he never had anyone with whom he could do it. Like in this… romantic way.

Okay, Hiccup was very sappy. But, come on!

Even though he knew there was nothing going on between him and Jack, he was still excited for tomorrow. But this excitement – a positive solvent – was heavily stirred with some negative solid substance. And the outcome was well… strange. Because the negative substance didn’t want to dissolve in the good feelings.

Negative here was fear of the dinner. Maybe even not the dinner, but the person with whom it was supposed to happen.

Because there was no way everything could go smoothly. And Hiccup had a feeling that many, many things could go wrong. Especially as the world just loved to make everything go wrong.

But he also wanted to do it. There was curiosity somewhere inside the reactor – an initiator, mixing with the negative and positive thoughts.

However it was small, almost impossible to spot with a naked eye. Plus the auburn haired boy quickly brushed this thought away. Nothing ever came good from being too curious.

 _Curiosity killed the cat_ , right?

Hiccup huffed and finished wrapping the gift. He stared at the outcomes from different angles.

In science you have to be curious to get anywhere. But private problems, emotions and relationships weren’t this type of science Hiccup was familiar with.

He sighed, not really content with his work, but too tired to do it over. He had done it already three times and he doubted that the fourth try would come out better.

So for now he decided to focus on the positive thoughts. It wasn’t easy, but worrying over dinner wouldn’t do him any good. Plus, he was sure he was going to be terribly stressed tomorrow.

However it was tomorrow Hiccup’s problem. Now… now he wanted to simply enjoy the warm sensation inside his stomach when he thought about giving his present to Jack.

_But satisfaction brought it back._

* * *

 

Jack sighed as he pushed the front door. They gave up under his force with a long whine mixed with a short, high squeak. He quickly stomped inside.

Man, the school so early was deserted. But well, he shouldn’t expect much actually.

The corridor was only partially lit, with the white fluorescent tubes blinking from time to time above his head.

Well, this place would be horrifying at night. No wonder people make horror games happening in schools.

Jack corrected the hold on his bag and moved through the corridor with his steps echoing softly after him, like some kind of a friendly ghost.

In just few minutes he was in front of Hiccup’s locker, same as dozen others green lockers next to it. The numbers were fading and one was written using permanent black marker.

Jack took off his bag and started his magical work.

He wasn’t that good in art and crafts. Back when he had been a kid he barely could draw an even house or a cat resembling an animal and not a long log with claws. While gluing he often glued his fingers to the paper and while cutting he was often cutting in a wrong direction. He definitely was no master in this.

But he wanted to try. That’s why he was here so early. To try to decorate nicely his locker.

Because he wanted to do it. Jack didn’t like Valentine’s Day, but Hiccup looked… looked actually happy about this day. Which was surprising, but not unwelcomed.

Streamer after streamer were glued to the surface. Ribbons stuck to the corner. A lot of dazzling glitter smeared in empty spaces. Few pink and red hearts glued to show affection. And finally…

The photo of the two of them.

Jack simply stared at it for few seconds.

That had taken it that evening when his mom had called him for the first time. They had been talking about decorating the locker and somehow Jack had proposed the idea of putting their photo there – because what kind of pair didn’t have photos together?

Actually when the question had left his lips, Jack had wanted to slap himself. But Hiccup actually had smiled at him and nodded vigorously, saying that they totally should do it.

So the photo came to life. It wasn’t much. Just a selfie of the two of them smiling to the camera, while sitting on Jack’s bed. His one hand was thrown over Hiccup’s shoulder who looked like he was (or wanted to) almost rolling his eyes. No wonder actually, as their cheeks were squished together.

Jack really… really adored this picture.

It was the first and only picture they had together and it made him wonder why they weren’t making more actually.

Jack turned the photo around and stuck few pieces of adhesive tape on the back. After that he lifted his hand and pasted the photo in the middle of the locker, smiling under his nose.

“What are you smiling at?”

Okay, the voice almost gave him a heart attack. Especially as he didn’t expect to hear it at this hour in their school.

Jack turned around and looked at Hiccup who was eyeing him with suspicious, but not mean, look.

“Uhm…” He swallowed hard. “Just our picture.”

Hiccup blinked, but stepped closer to take a look at the picture currently being pressed to the cold metal locker by Jack’s palms.

“It looks nice.” Hiccup confirmed, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.

Jack hummed and finally moved his palms away to turn fully to the teen standing next to him.

“What are you doing here?” He asked instead.

“I wanted to help you, but it looks like you already did it.” Hiccup said, glancing up at him, but then directing his eyes at the locker. “You could have told me you’d be here so early.”

Jack snickered under his nose, which made Hiccup look back at him. Oh, shit, he didn’t mean to be so loud, but come on!

“You are really bad in this relationship’s thing.” Jack said, putting his one hand on his hip and leaning to this side a little bit.

Hiccup opened his mouth, but closed it and then glared at Jack. He did it one more time and only then he finally said:

“I came here to have a good time and I’m feeling so attacked right now.”

At that Jack simply had to laugh hard. It was precious, especially since it came from nerd’s mouth in this very emotionless, robotic voice. The poker face on Hiccup’s face was beautiful too.

But even the auburn haired teen had to drop his façade and crack a smile.

“Okay, that was a good one.”

“Thanks. It took me a while to recall this one.” Hiccup nodded, but then turned to the locker. “But honestly I wanted to help you with this one. You didn’t have to do it on your own.”

Jack sighed, half-heartedly.

“But I wanted to.” He mused, looking back at the locker. He was quite content with his work, even though he was no artist. It wasn’t the best – a crooked ribbon was the proof, hanging loosely, barely glued to the surface. But in the end it was a nicely decorated locker.

Not to mention he did speak the truth. He wanted to do it. Maybe Jack wasn’t a big fan of Valentine’s Day, but it didn’t mean he hated this day either.

However today he wanted to participate a little bit in this day’s activities. Because Hiccup had looked totally mesmerized about the idea of being able to do something on this day. Plus this way Jack could show his affection – even though it was hidden behind a trench of false-relationship. Hiccup didn’t have to know the real meaning behind all those pinkish hearts, colorful ribbons and smeared glitter. He didn’t have to know that the words written there were true. Maybe for Hiccup they were only a few drops of pen ink smudged on a paper. But for Jack they held something important – a small piece of his shared secret.

Paper was safe. The words can disappear from it quickly – all it takes is sometimes a tug, not necessarily strong, and poof, the words are torn in half. It can take Jack one swift movement to get rid of all his emotions written there. However he didn’t want to do that.

No one, beside him and Astrid, actually knew that what he had written there was reality. So he wasn’t afraid of leaving it there. It made him feel lighter even.

“And I wanted to help, so this brought us to nothing.” Hiccup insisted, puffing out his cheeks.

So stubborn.

Jack slumped his shoulders and then grabbed a glittery pen from the bag.

“Okay, here, you can participate now.” He declared, making a face like it was taking a lot of his inner strength.

Hiccup grabbed the pen in the speed of light. Then with childish grin he stepped in front of Jack and uncapped the pen.

Jack observed from above Hiccup’s arm at the small doodles that were currently being drawn on the only free places available on the metal surface. His hand was moving quickly, but steadily while making short lines or round shapes. He definitely had more experience in drawing than Jack. It took him only few seconds to create a decent cat and ten or so movements to create two quite adorable small figures holding hands. All this time Hiccup was making weird faces and sticking his tongue out.

Jack decided he liked that. Observing Hiccup as he was so passionately doing something.

And just after few minutes there were no more empty spaces, only tiny doodles adorning the locker.

“Done!” Hiccup extolled, stepping back, almost bumping into Jack in this process.

Welp, Jack had moved closer to see more details on these tiny drawings. Gladly he managed to move away in time to not make Hiccup uncomfortable.

“Okay. I must say I wasn’t giving you much credit, but you surprised me. Although it’s still lame to decorate your own locker for Valentine’s Day.” Jack said, putting his one hand on his chin.

His comment was quickly countered with a jab to the side.

Jack jumped and touched the wounded place, making puppy eyes at Hiccup who was almost glaring at him right now.

“Haha, yeah, I know I’m a loser!” The auburn haired teen huffed. The hand which so painfully hit Jack’s side moved down.

Jack quickly stepped closer to throw his arm over Hiccup’s should and bring him in for a half hug.

“No, you’re not. You’re just a weirdo.”

Maybe Jack shouldn’t feel so happy about the fact that Hiccup didn’t immediately push him away. He knew he shouldn’t feel so fulfilled after noticing this small detail. He knew he shouldn’t feel proud of the fact that he was able to more-over hug Hiccup without him freaking out. But Jack did feel all of that and even more.

Few weeks ago Hiccup would yelp and jump away. Today he didn’t even mention it – he didn’t become rigid, he didn’t freeze like he was under some ice spell, his eyes didn’t become big as full moons. In the end nothing in his posture showed that he was stressed over the fact that Jack hugged him.

And it was amazing.

“A weird loser?” Hiccup insisted, casting his eyes upwards at him. There was even a hint of mirth, a playful joke sparkling somewhere in his lush green orbs.

“No, just weird.” Jack nodded and then turned to the locker.

Hiccup did too. Or at least the slight movement under Jack’s chin told him so. They were staring at the decorated metal door for few seconds before Hiccup cleared his throat.

Jack glanced down, his arm slumping down when Hiccup backed away.

“Thanks, Jack.” He simply said.

“For what?” He lifted his eyebrow, not really understanding what the other one mean.

The smaller teen looked up, only to cast his gaze away, focusing his eyes on his own feet.

“For trying to celebrate this day with me.” He finally murmured. “I know you’re not the biggest fan of Valentines.”

“No problem.” Jack immediately responded, hiding his hands in the pockets of his blouse. He shifted his weight from one leg to another.

“But it was a problem, so yeah… thank you.”

Jack really didn’t want to be fazed by simple words – a show of gratitude. But lately he was fazed by a lot of things Hiccup did. Especially small things. But usually those small things were the most precious ones.

Because these few words made him all warm inside. It made the butterflies, currently living in his stomach, come to life, waking them up from the slumber.

(However lately he felt that there were less and less butterflies there)

Somehow repeating himself that it was no problem seemed dumb in this situation. So he said the next thing that popped into his mind.

“Well, in this case I expect some delicious chocolates from you.”

That wasn’t the truth. Jack would be happy if he even received cheap chocolates. He would be happy if he got any chocolate really.

Hiccup looked back at him. The smile tugged on the corner of his lips.

“You’ll like them, no worries.” He said, lifting his hand and pushing one auburn lock behind his ear. “By the way, are you maybe allergic to arsenic?”

Jack blinked.

“What?”

“Nothing!” Hiccup smirked and then turned on his heels to quickly stomp away. “See you in few minutes!”

Well, that was weird.

Jack stared at the retreating silhouette of Hiccup. Only after few seconds he grabbed all his things and walked to his own locker to hide them.

* * *

 

The play they had put in front of others was well… good. Or at least this was what Astrid told him, after they were alone, eating lunch.

Hiccup had walked few blocks away from the school to catch up with Astrid and to step into the school together. There he had had to feign a surprise after seeing the nicely decorated locker. But the smile that had formed on his lips after seeing Jack goofy grin hadn’t been faked.

They had hugged in front of the small crowd that had formed around their locker. They had laughed and joked and Hiccup had given Jack cookies. The fact which had surprised Jack, judging by his widening eyes. But the glee had returned to his orbs quickly after that. And well, if the joy was more prominent than before, Hiccup had decided not to point that out.

He knew they had decided on the bought chocolates, but he had wanted to make something. To make Jack day a little bit bearable. Maybe it was silly, but well… now it was too late.

They had talked a little bit in front of the locker and then, after hearing the bell ring, they had moved to their separate classes, hugging one more time as a farewell.

“Man, you could have at least kissed him on the cheek.” Astrid said, twirling some pasta onto her fork. She put it into her mouth and munched on it. “I mean, this is what pairs do, right?”

“Are you proposing the idea or asking? Because I’m not sure.” Hiccup followed, rising his eyebrow at his friend. Then he shook his head. “Never mind. The plan worked. The official part of Valentine’s Day is over.”

Astrid hummed, eyeing him suspiciously, but with a hint of something evil sparkling in the corners of her eyes.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” She said.

Hiccup glanced at her. The hand holding a carton with milk stopped in its journey to his mouth.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing~” Astrid quickly replied, looking up at the ceiling.

Okay, no, he definitely didn’t trust this tone. It had bad frequency. The one he didn’t technically like very much. Or at all for that matter.

He was kind of curious if she really knew something or was just teasing him to make him feel edgy for the whole day, awaiting something that could or could not happen. It had happened few times in the past. Gladly Hiccup quickly had learned how to stop caring about it. So after a short fight inside his brain, whether he should or should not ask for more information, he decided it wasn’t worth another dose of stress added to his already sour stomach.

* * *

 

After classes he literally flew away from the school. And it was all due to Jack’s one message.

_Shit. She booked the restaurant for an hour_

_earlier. Think you can make it? (_ _๑_ _ʘ∆ʘ_ _๑_ _)_

_I’ll try definitely D:_

So here was Hiccup, running to his house to get ready for the dinner. Under normal circumstances he would have additional hour to get ready. But now he was under pressure. And he hated to be under pressure. Especially concerning time.

Hiccup wanted to really put effort into his look. Maybe do some calming down exercises. Maybe rehearse some conversations beforehand in his head. He had all this afternoon planned.

And yet it all crashed down.

Hiccup shouldn’t be surprised. Maybe in the end he wasn’t even surprised. He was worried. He wasn’t even pissed actually. But yeah, definitely troubled. Because, well when one thing is missing from the plan, then all hell breaks loose. Yeah, Murphy’s Law. So Hiccup had a giant feeling that everything can go wrong.

Hiccup jumped into his house – with the door banging on the opposite wall – at what he had to wince. He quickly checked the surface of the wall, but there were no cracks. Gladly. A broken wall was the last thing he needed in his life.

After that he was moving in the speed of light. During the shower his hands were shivering and fidgeting to this point everything was slipping from his fingers. Not to mention he managed to get soap into his eyes, which hurt badly. After that he almost crashed down when he slipped on the water puddle on the bathroom’s floor.

And Toothless only stared at him, curiously tilting his head to one side.

Gladly he had already prepared his clothes, so he only had to put them on. Which in the end was still a complicated job to the unsteady hands. The fact that his body was a little bit wet from the shower wasn’t helping either. And, of course, he got his head stuck in a shirt’s hole.

“Shit…” He cursed under his nose as he finally was able to get his head through the sweater.

What should he take? What should he do? Wait, wallet, he definitely needed a wallet. And a phone! Wait, where did he put his phone?

“Where is it? Where is it?”

His hands moved frantically in his backpack, searching for the device. But even after he shuffled through eleven notebooks, dirty lab coat and other not useful things, he still couldn’t find his phone. Gladly he heard vibrations coming from under a pile of dirty clothes he had worn today.

_I’m taking North’s car. I’ll be near_

_your house in ten minutes (_ _❁_ _°͈_ _▵_ _°͈)_

Even while writing one simple word, he had problems.

_Okay._

Even though it wasn’t okay.

Hiccup combed his hand through his hair, only to find them still dripping. Great, he can’t go like that!

The auburn haired boy ran to the bathroom one more time. He maneouvered around in search for a dryer, only to find it in the cupboard above the washing machine. He somehow plugged it in and enjoyed few seconds of peace when the hot air blew through his locks.

To be honest, he didn’t want to go there. Going to this dinner hadn’t sounded so bad few days ago. But now… now the only thing he wanted was for the afternoon to end. And it didn’t even start yet.

Poor Jack. He must be feeling way worse than Hiccup. He had tried to hide it, behind a combination of fake smiles and even worse imitation of laughs, but Hiccup had known. It wasn’t so hard to see actually.

Or maybe he got more over good at distinguishing the real Jack from the acted one.

So Jack definitely had to be more stressed than Hiccup. Especially as the meeting was now happening earlier.

Hiccup had a tendency to turn into a grumpy and quite angry mess whenever some of his plans turned to ashes after being oxidized by something (or someone). He liked to have everything in order and when this order was taken away, he simply felt scared.

But today he would try to behave properly and remain optimistic. Even if this was against his usual negative nature. Jack deserved it. He didn’t need a brat bothering him and making him more nervous than he probably already was.

Hiccup looked in the mirror, combing his hand through now dry hair. They were soft, but unfortunately also sticking in different directions. Using comb he somehow managed to tame his auburn locks. He looked not as presentable as he wanted to look, but he didn’t have time.

His phone came to life with yet another message. Well, actually there were two messages from Aster in the background, but Hiccup had more important matters on his head than replying to Bunny.

_I’m in front of your house (_ _⚆_ ___ _⚆_ _)_

He was already here! Okay, no, Hiccup can’t panic.

He got it. They will live through today afternoon. If the two of them are there, then they will somehow manage to do it. Together.

After glancing one more time at the mirror, he ran back into the room to grab his things. Toothless trotted to him, snuggling his leg.

“Sorry bud. Dad will feed you later. I have to go.”

With that Hiccup ran down the stairs, not even slipping once, even though his leg started to ache in the middle. However while he was passing through kitchen there was a soft blink inside his head, a sudden spark of burning down magnesium stripe.

His present for Jack’s birthday! Fuck, he almost forgot it.

So Hiccup had to draw to a halt, only to turn around and return to his room.

The small rectangular box was secured in the drawer under his desk. Hiccup grabbed it and hid inside his bag, pushing it behind a book so no one would see it so fast if he or she glanced inside.

This time he was ready. Or at least he thought he was ready.

Hiccup quickly put on his more over clean shoes (not the dirty ones he usually wore to school) and jacket. After that he glanced back, quickly searching in his mind for anything that he might forget and only then he stepped out and locked the door.

In front of his house stood a car. Inside of it was Jack, tapping nervously on the steering wheel. When Hiccup opened the door Jack looked at him and even from far away he could see a ghost of a smirk trying to appear in the corner of his lips.

Hiccup quickly ran to the car and opened the door to the passenger seat in one swift motion.

“Hey there, long time no see.” Jack said, looking at him.

“Hello to you too.”

Hiccup smiled hesitantly, sitting on the seat and locking the door after himself. He put the bag on his lap and then fastened the seatbelt. Unfortunately, he found out during this process that his palms were still shaking. Shit.

All this time Jack was observing him. Maybe not fully observing, but he was glancing a lot in his direction.

Only after Hiccup was sitting properly, Jack’s hand moved to ignition. He turned the key and the lead-acid battery* came to life with a small roar, urging electrons into motion.

Jack exhaled as he looked in the rearview mirror to check if he was allowed to drive onto a road.

Hiccup observed him. Not openly, of course, because he wasn’t some creep, but from the corner of his eyes. He could see as Jack’s hands fidgeted whenever they were away from the steering wheel, as Jack’s leg tapped nervously when it wasn’t used currently and as Jack nibbled on his bottom lip, only to exhale loudly in the end.

“Nervous?” Hiccup asked. He already knew the answer. Hiccup just wanted to start a conversation, he needed some kind of initiator to put the whole reaction into motion.

Jack glanced at him only once, quickly returning his gaze to the road.

“Honestly?” Hiccup nodded, even though the white haired teen couldn’t see him. “I’m terrified.”

So it was way worse. Not a good sign.

Then after a second, Jack continued:

“How about you?”

And then they both stopped on the red light. The cars standing parallel to them woke up from their slumber and started to move – some of they jumped into top speed and some slowly drove through the crossroad.

“I’m stressed as fuck…” Hiccup admitted, pushing the fringe away from his forehead. Unfortunately he found few locks still glued to his skin. “Do you think that the only person happy about this meeting is your mother?”

Jack’s finger, which had been tapping some kind of unsteady rhythm, stopped midair. It landed on the steering wheel, but the other hand moved to the gearbox.

“I don’t think if even she is happy about this meeting.”

Ouch, that… that wasn’t nice.

“I’m sure she wants to see you.”

If she had some oxytocin* running through her body, that was. But she was Jack’s mother. She had held him under her heart for nine months. There was no way she didn’t want to see her baby after being away from him for few years, right?

Right?

But Jack didn’t look convinced. His lips didn’t even twitch, didn’t make that hesitant move to show that he wanted (or tried) to believe his words.

Hiccup didn’t like it.

He could jump into this black hole – into the never ending pit of words of comfort. Beautiful emptiness. Warm cups filled with hot chocolate during bad evenings. He could do all of that. He could pat Jack on the back and tell him that he probably was mistaken about his mother, that she probably loved him, but had problems with showing it, that he definitely was the apple of her eye. He could do all of that.

But he wasn’t sure whether he nor especially Jack would believe it.

No, Hiccup wanted to believe it, but it looked like Jack stopped doing so long time ago. Like the childish light, the pure, fuzzy spark was ripped away from his hands.

It was terrifying. How different Jack was – on the outside and on the inside. Because the outside Jack, the image of him he shared with the world, was perfect. With the handsome face. With the addictive laugh. With the warm, comforting hands, ready to reach for you when you need it.

Yet the image showed to the world wasn’t scary. It was the effort Jack had to put to polish this mask to perfection. It was horrifying how it came so naturally to Jack to pretend that everything was okay in his small, perfect life.

Especially when it wasn’t.

So Hiccup didn’t let the sweet nothings spill from his mouth, even though sentences were already being formed at the back of his tongue. He reached and put his hand on Jack’s shoulder.

“We’re going to go through it together.” He said, trying to sound strong and as reassuring as he wanted to be.

Jack knew his mother the best, so he probably knew what they should expect, so no sweet words would work here. They were reassuring, of course, but they weren’t a solid ground. They floated in the air, only to disappear few minutes later. Jack didn’t need something that could disintegrate so quickly. He needed something more, something on which he could lean on, something that could be there when he needed it.

Hiccup wanted to be this something. Because he was tired of being the one who searched for help, who sought a helping hand. He wanted to be the one helping, giving hope, being there.

His throat was dry after he had spoken, but he kept his hand firm on Jack’s shoulder.

Jack glanced at him, but he had to quickly look back at the road. But even though it was a mere second, Hiccup could see something shimmering inside these orbs. And the corners of his mouth moved upwards, turning the negative parabolic equation of a smile into a positive one.

Jack’s one palm moved clumsily to his own shoulder, where it rested on Hiccup’s hand for few seconds.

Jack’s palm was cold. Even more than usual. It was almost freezing, even though it was pretty warm in the car. So Jack had to be stressed over it, cutting the circulation to his hand to minimum.

Then Jack lifted his hand, so Hiccup could retract his own. Which he did, but before he could fully do it, Jack grabbed it and squeezed hard. Not so hard to hurt, but hard like he wanted to show something, send some kind of coded message.

“Thanks.”

It was a short spasm, a jump, a shudder, a tremble of electricity. It was a blink of an eye. It was a burst, an explosion, a supernova. It was a warm wind passing through the hair, but it also was a soft buzz of whirring machine. It was something new, and comfortingly old too.

Hiccup wasn’t sure what it was.

But he felt happy after hearing this one word. And the hand holding his own, even if for a short amount of time, wasn’t as uncomfortable as he always had thought it was.

It was almost… nice.

Heh, weird.

Jack moved his palm and returned it to the steering wheel as he made a turn. Hiccup put his palm on his lap, sensing a ticklish tingling somewhere between his fingers.

* * *

 

Hiccup had to agree on one thing – Jack’s mother had style. Because the restaurant she had picked was stunning.

And also very expensive apparently.

He had heard the name of it somewhere, but never had paid it any attention. Mostly because he rarely went to restaurants. Especially such exquisite. Every detail of this place was thought through. There wasn’t any part that didn’t fit the rest of the surroundings. The golden roses were in perfect synchronization with chocolate carpets beneath creamy vases. The tall windows were an excellent combination for hanging, platinum chandeliers. The round tables covered in thin silk, scattered all over white, shiny floor, were like flowers on the meadow.

It looked astonishingly pristine and elegant, so Hiccup, of course, felt out of place the second he stepped in. Judging by Jack immediately becoming rigid under scrutinizing gaze of a waiter standing near the doorway, he had to feel the same.

The waiter skeptically stared at them when they approached him after entering, but his eyes shone with recognition after Jack said for whom the reservation was*.

“Of course, follow me.” The waiter said, taking two menus and turning to march into the ballroom filled with tables and people. The worst combination for Hiccup’s anxiety.

Gladly not many people looked at them as they walked through the hall to the round table near one windowed wall. It was perfectly made, just as everything else here.

It almost looked fake.

Gosh, so many forks. Hiccup didn’t know which one he should use. Fuck, what if he takes the wrong one?! Will everyone see it!? Damn, embarrassing himself was one thing, but embarrassing Jack was a whole another business. And he didn’t want to do that.

“Should we take your coats, sirs?”

“Ah, yes, please.”

There was a shuffling sound coming from Hiccup’s side. It looked like Jack was taking his jacket off. Wait… the waiter asked them about something? What it was, what it was!?

“Here, let me help you.”

It was Jack, with soft voice, putting his hands on Hiccup’s shoulders.

Hiccup somehow took off his own coat and turned to his friend, feeling the blush rising to his cheek, like steam from boiling liquid. Yep, first few minutes inside and he already was a mess.

Jack gave both their jackets to the waiter and then turned to him, sending a kind, understanding smile.

They both sat down, next to each other. Hiccup tried not to make any sound as he was pushing his chair back, but Jack did it in one swift motion, scraping on the floor along the way.

When Hiccup finally sat down, he exhaled loudly, trying to calm his hammering heart and sweating hands. Great. He knew he was bad at interactions. He knew he was a mess in new places. He knew he shouldn’t go to such extravaganza places like this. But he couldn’t let all these negative emotions win. Even when he wanted to curl and disappear. He had to fight back.

It was only few hours. Maybe less.

“You okay?”

He turned to the white haired teen.

“Yeah, I think so.” No, he wasn’t, but he won’t give up, so he might at least try to pretend. “It’s just… this place is so…”

“Overwhelming?” Jack proposed, a hint of amusement at the end tone.

“Yeah.” Hiccup nodded, looking down at the porcelain plate. Or at least it looked like porcelain. He never could fully understand ceramics materials*.

Jack nudged his arm delicately.

“My advice is to not care about what other people think. You probably won’t come here for another few months or years, so they definitely will forget about you.”

Hiccup blinked and then rose his head to look at Jack, who had his elbow on the table and chin resting on his hand.

“So you were here?”

“Yop, four years ago. And I accidentally made some waiter trip and spill a soup on a poor lady.” Jack cackled, leaning on the chair’s back legs, swinging back and forth. The behavior made some other man glance at them disapprovingly, but Jack, even if he noticed, didn’t care.

Okay, so Jack also had done some embarrassing things. Phew. That was actually reassuring a lot.

“Sounds harsh.” Hiccup commented, smiling a little at the end.

“What can I say? I was a troublemaker!” Jack put both his hands behind his head, swinging heavily back and glancing at Hiccup.

“Was? Mister, I think you used the wrong tense. You’re still a troublemaker.”

Jack returned to his normal sitting position and then raised his hand to put it on his chest. He exhaled loudly, trying to sound as touched and wounded as he could.

“Me? The most innocent boy you know? Hiccup, how could you say such terrible things about poor ol’ me?”

Hiccup rolled his eyes, feeling something tugging on his heart inside his chest. Like a small pull of a string tied around it. Or maybe a soft tug of metal in very faint magnetic field. Whatever it was, it was something new, yet familiar nevertheless.

Because it was like the bickers they had had some time ago. The same leisure atmosphere appeared between them, light and kinda dizzy, like helium. It was making everything seem easier and more accepting.

God, Hiccup missed that. He never knew he could get used to it, until he had lost what he had built with Jack. For other it maybe was insignificant. Just a small bicker, a tease, a barely visible precipitate in the solvent. But for Hiccup, it meant a lot.

He felt comfortable like that, sitting with Jack in an unknown and unwelcoming place. Just the two of them.

“I definitely wouldn’t call you innocent.” Hiccup finally said, cocking his eyebrow as he tapped his fingers on the surface of the table.

“Really? Then wha-“ But the white haired teen’s sentence was cut in half as he simply froze, staring at something above Hiccup’s shoulder.

He blinked and only a second later turned around on his chair.

Jack’s mother was beautiful. He was the whole epitome of elegancy and fashion. The cascade of ebony, straight hair was falling softly onto her shoulders, moving slightly with every movement of her body. Her eyes, red as burning lithium, were directed at them. The color was unusual, and even though it was alluring, it was also impassive. Especially as it didn’t fit the kindly smiling painted lips.

The purple dress waved with every step, nicely fitting the body that definitely had taken some work to be put into this shape. It was a body of someone who wasn’t ashamed of it.

Hiccup found out that he could only stare, mesmerized and weirdly terrified both in the same time.

“Hello Jackson.” She said, voice smooth as regenerated cellulose fiber*. “It’s good to see you after such long time.”

Jack answered a few seconds later than usual. He also sat more straight and rigid, losing all this laxity his body had until now.

“Yeah, nice to see you too.” Jack said, but it felt strained.

Jack’s mother’s mouth twitched and then, God, she looked at Hiccup who sat right in front of her.

It felt like she could see right through him and read him like an open book.

He felt small, even tiny under this gaze.

“You must be Hamish, right?” She asked, the soft tone weirdly seemed fake or maybe strained. Like she tried to remember his name correctly. Which actually might be the case.

Hiccup was honestly astonished that she even knew his name. To this point he only answered few seconds late.

Damn.

“Uhm, yeah, I’m Hamish… or Hiccup as people usually call me.” He jumped to his feet, feeling the chair wavering, but gladly not falling back. He showed his hand to the woman. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

Jack’s mother’s hand was cold, chilling even. But the grip was a strong one and she didn’t hesitate to shake their connected hands, with a polite smile and slight nod of her head.

“Eris Pfeiffer. I’m happy to say the same.” She tilted her head softly, maybe assessing him from different angle. Her gaze looked like it was calculating something. “It rarely happens for me to meet Jackie’s friends.”

Jack behind him groaned loudly and Hiccup turned to him, rising his eyebrows. Eris let go of his hand.

“Please, just not Jackie…” The teen mumbled, looking up at the ceiling and sighing exasperatedly at the end.

Eris circled Hiccup and moved to Jack, only to pinch his cheek. Jack quickly jumped and swatted her hand away.

“Stop it.” Jack grumbled, massaging the pinched place. There was a rosy color smeared near his nose. “You know I don’t like when you do it.”

“You see me once every few years, so I think you can bear with this for few hours.” The woman said with a hint of motherly tone to her voice.

It was supposed to sound normal. Heck, Eris kinda had a point. Yet there was something unsettling in that sentence. Some kind of power, an unspoken seriousness. It was a tone of someone who was used to giving orders, and not taking ‘no’ for an answer.

Jack didn’t reply. He didn’t even look up at his mother.

Eris moved past him, ruffling his hair with her palm. She curled one Jack’s lock around her finger. After that she sat on the last, free chair.

“So boys, did you already order something?”

* * *

 

Eris ordered herself a lamp of red wine. Jack was about to order a glass of white wine for himself, but a nudge from Hiccup made him stop. He glanced back at him and Hiccup only tilted his head in the direction of the parking lot.

Jack was driving them back.

In the end he only ordered himself a drink without alcohol – Shirley Temple*. Hiccup got himself coffee.

After that came a time to order dinner. And Hiccup, well he wasn’t sure what he wanted to pick. Everything in the menu sounded overly complicated – with its long description and, not to mention, too high price. Shit, even the cheapest dish was still too expensive. Why waste so much money when you could simply order pizza?

Jack quickly looked through the menu, but it didn’t look like he was searching for anything. More like he was pretending that he was interested in whatever was there. The unfocused gaze told Hiccup at least much.

He wanted to ask Jack what he was taking, so maybe he could take the same, but he was afraid it would look pretty impolite.

So Hiccup returned to staring at the laminated pages, cringing and screaming internally. If someone who had mind reading abilities was here, then they definitely would have to cover their ears right now.

He stole few glances at the white haired teen, but he didn’t even once look back. Shit.

“You can pick whatever you want, Hiccup.” Eris suddenly said, the corner of her nicely made lips moving upwards in something similar to comforting smile.

However Hiccup was terrified how easy it was to read him. Or maybe it was the blood line – because Jack had no problems with guessing Hiccup’s real feelings too.

His eyes quickly scanned the main menu list and decided on something that sounded edible and wasn’t as expensive as some of the meals written there. When the waiter came, everyone said their respective orders and Hiccup found out that his own was the cheapest of them all. He wasn’t sure if this was a good or a bad thing.

After the waiter left them, Hiccup exhaled slowly through his nose, trying to soothe the tension roaming in his muscles. He could see Jack looking at him, so he stared back.

Jack’s smile was soft and a little bit giddy. But it wasn’t the smile Hiccup focused on, but on Jack’s eyes, shimmering in the yellowish light coming from chandeliers above. It was a flame, glinting and disappearing, sending a coded message in form of blinks of the light.

Hiccup nodded, trying to grin too and show that he was more over doing okay.

But then Eris opened her mouth and started to speak.

She talked about her life, how beautiful Greece was, how delicious the food there was, how the weather was just perfectly warm and, of course, she talked about her job. The places she had seen, the people she had met and the situations she had to write about.

And Hiccup found himself being enamored by her way of talking, by the way she connected words with tones – like some kind of beautiful threads. He was mesmerized by the stories – told in funny, yet charming and interesting way. Eris knew how to give her words a spark, a needed ingredient to make the reader being captivated by the sounds and meanings.

Jack looked interested too. Or at least he looked like he was listening, but he didn’t utter a single word. Once or twice he opened his mouth, but then he was drowned by the bigger, stronger presence.

Hiccup didn’t like it.

But then the waiter brought their meals and all stories were cut short.

The food was delicious, even though, honestly, Hiccup wasn’t sure what he was actually eating. In the middle of his dish Jack’s fork moved to steal a piece of fish from his plate, what Hiccup commented with a small glare. Jack snickered and put the stolen piece in his mouth.

Hiccup turned back to see Eris moving her head back to her dish, elegantly maneuvering both a fork and a knife. Shit, she definitely had seen that. But friends do that too and he and Jack were friends, so it shouldn’t be bad, right?

Still, his stomach weighed him down, churning nervously with another bite.

When they finished dinner, the same waiter came to them to ask what they would want for dessert. Jack ordered himself a Black Forest cake and Hiccup a piece of Tiramisu*.

“So, Jackie, how’s life? How is school? You didn’t tell me much during our conversation on the phone.” Eris started, lifting a hand to another waiter who approached them with a bottle of wine. The short stream of liquid moved without a sound, filling perfectly half of the glass.

Hiccup would definitely spill most of it on the floor.

Jack looked away from his mother who was now swirling the red liquid around the glass.

“Life is okay, I guess.” He shrugged and then tapped on his knee. “School is… more over fine.”

Hiccup knew Jack preferred to avoid talking about school. Mostly due to Professor Black. Or at least Aster had told him that Jack could be moody because of his problems with math. That reminded Hiccup he had wanted to talk about it with him.

Eris hummed, more to herself than to them, taking a slow sip.

“More over?” She inquired, rising her eyebrow. There was a hesitant, playful smirk dancing in the corners of her lips, but something about it seemed forced. It didn’t look like any amused smile Jack had been giving him – those were always honest, brilliant and warm. This one… this one wasn’t.

“Yeah, more over.” Jack mumbled, reaching and grabbing his drink only to fiddle with the straw.

Hiccup occupied himself with taking a sip of the coffee he had ordered. It was perfect, not scalding hot, but warm enough for drinking.

“North told me you have problem with math.” She said, tilting the glass to one side.

Uh oh. Jack twitched nervously while straightening his back. His eyes jumped from the drink in front of him to his mother.

“Can we not talk about it right now?” He asked, politely.

Hiccup glanced at him, keeping the cup near his mouth. Shit, this was starting to turn sour, dangerous even with the atmosphere around them sizzling with charged loads. One spark, one spark could burn it all.

“Why not? I don’t understand why we shouldn’t talk about your problems when I see you once every few years?” Eris looked up, right at Jack, putting her glass away on the table.

Jack made a weird, incoherent noise at the back of his throat. Something between a whine and a groan, which gave him the attention of a near table.

Eris noticed it too and commented with a cough.

“Please, behave yourself.”

Okay, okay, okay. This was starting to get hazy. Nope, nope, nope.

Jack looked like he wanted to add something to it, but bit his tongue in time and only straightened his posture, moving the drink away on the table.

“So, what will it be?” Eris asked one more time, when no one spoke for few seconds.

“What will be what?” Jack quickly implored, looking up at the black haired woman.

Now it was her time to roll her eyes. Her fingers twitched near the wine glass, like she desperately wanted to reach for it, but something inside of her was stopping it.

“Will you tell me about your problems with math?”

Jack pinched his mouth into a thin line, to this point his usually pinkish lips turned pale. His hands twitched and he put them on his knees, grabbing onto the jeans tightly immediately.

Hiccup didn’t like that. He wanted to signal to Jack somehow that maybe he should… should what? End this afternoon quicker? But how? Everything was fine when Eris was talking about herself, but when she wanted to interact with Jack’s personal life, everything broke down.

“Do I have to?” Jack snapped and judging by Eris furrowing her eyebrows, this was definitely a bad answer. Jack probably noticed it too, because he almost immediately continued. “Can’t we talk about something I want to talk about?”

“Of course.” Eris nodded, taking the neck of the glass between her thin fingers. Oh, her nails were painted. She lifted it to her lips, but before she took a sip, she followed. “Of course, we can.” Jack relaxed slowly, moving to rest his body on the back of his chair. “As soon as you tell me about your problems with math.”

Persistent in a very bad way. Even Hiccup started to get a bad taste in his mouth. He started to understand why Jack didn’t want to be here, why was he already so grumpy before entering. He definitely knew her better than most of the people around them, so he already knew what should he expect.

Jack’s leg twitched, hand gripped the material so tight that the usual pale knuckles became white as titania*, muscles tensed, eyes lost all the warm light they had been (or tried to) emanating few seconds ago. Now he looked… tired. Exhausted even. No wonder. No one wanted to argue with their family, especially parents, after not seeing them for such long time.

How did these meetings look like when Hiccup wasn’t there? Was Eris forcing herself and her point of view on Jack a little bit less, because of Hiccup’s presence here?

She did glance at him few times, so maybe yes. Maybe Hiccup was this neutral substance which was diluting the atmosphere – the mixture of two opposite points of view. However Hiccup didn’t want to stay neutral – not good, but not particularly bad either. He wanted to participate somehow, to be active and not passive. To be important, to help somehow.

Just as Jack had helped him so many times.

“Excuse me, but I don’t… don’t think Jack has that big iss- problems with math.” Hiccup opened his mouth and well, words just slipped past them, breaking somehow through the dense air between them.

Eris looked at him, the glass of wine leaving her lips. Shit, shit, shit. His heart was hammering inside his chest, the dopamine swirling through his veins. His hands shivered when he simply felt exposed under her cunning, perceptive eyes.

They were like magnetic field, exciting all his nuclei, forcing them to send a radio frequency signal so all his secrets could be shared*.

But Hiccup decided to hold strongly, to not cower back under the piercing gaze.

“He can be good at it when he tries and I think… I think he only needs to learn a little bit.” Maybe more than a little bit, but she didn’t have to know that. “And then he’ll pass all exams with flying grades.”

Hiccup honestly believed it, he only didn’t have time to tell it face to face to Jack.

Who was definitely staring at him, if the feeling at the back of his mind and the prickling of his skin were any indications.

Eris stared at him, running calculations in her head. Or at least it looked like that. Or maybe she was checking if Hiccup did speak the truth. How? He wasn’t sure.

Okay, okay, Hiccup can pull out Jack’s ace.

“He got a B+ from his last test, after all.”

The wrinkles on Eris’ forehead softened. With her one hand she moved a lone, ebony strand behind her ear and then looked back at Jack.

“Jackie, that’s amazing. Why didn’t you tell me?” The kind, soft tone was back, but this time it felt like it took a lot of her inner strength to modify it.

Hiccup finally could turn to Jack, who looked back at his mother. He nibbled on his bottom lip for a second or so, before he finally opened his mouth:

“I don’t know. I just… forgot.”

It was a lie. Hiccup knew it immediately. Even though it was a very good lie. Nothing in Jack’s demeanor changed – he didn’t look away, his fingers didn’t shiver, eyes were as focused at the person in front of him as they had been before opening his mouth. Yet Hiccup knew it was a lie.

A painful one.

“Well… I’m still proud of you, Jackie.” Eris added, tilting the glass to his direction, like she was making a toast.

After that came the waiter with their desserts and another refill of Eris’ glass.

The cakes were delicious – a pure heaven melting inside his mouth. Hiccup couldn’t stop himself from humming contently after taking the first bite. Jack probably thought the same, judging by his dazed look and smile returning to pale lips.

Maybe it was time for revenge. Because, well, Jack’s piece also looked tasty.

Hiccup moved closer, eyeing the plate and chocolate cake.

Jack swallowed a bite and glanced down at him. Or at least it looked like that, because Hiccup didn’t stop eyeing the dessert.

“Do you want a bite?”

“Yes.” Hiccup immediately said.

Jack put down his hand and pushed his plate in the direction of Hiccup, who beamed at him and grabbed quite big bite onto his spoon.

“Hey!”

“You didn’t specify how big of a piece I can take, so shush. Plus you took a piece of my dinner earlier.”

“Point taken, but I didn’t take half of your dinner.”

“Come on, I only took like one third of your slice.”

“Exactly!”

So before Jack could whine more about it, Hiccup quickly devoured the piece he had on his spoon. Gosh, it was also yummy. If he knew, he would skip the main menu to order only desserts for today.

Jack sighed loudly, but he didn’t look mad at that.

Hiccup swallowed and moved back to his seat.

“Okay, you can try mine.” He said, pushing his own plate to his friend.

He didn’t have to repeat himself, because in a split-second almost half of his piece was gone.

“You’re terrible, you know that…” Hiccup commented drily, staring at what was left of his Tiramisu. Welp, he should have known better than to mess with Jack.

“I know.” Jack happily agreed, reaching forward to grab a napkin which he used to clean his mouth.

Hiccup rolled his eyes, finished his dessert and only then he looked up to see Eris eyeing him. Shit, shit, shit. What now? What did he mess up? Did he do something wrong? Did she get the wrong idea from the whole situation between him and Jack? They had agreed on not trying to look like they were together. The less people knew now, the easier it will be to untangle in the future the mess they had made.

Untangle. Which meant that they will have to break up.

Oh…

Hiccup took the last few sips of coffee he had in the cup, trying to kill the weird, sour aftertaste he suddenly seemed to have in his mouth.

But then Eris smiled at him and moved to rest her eyes on her son once again.

“How is Emma?” She suddenly asked.

Jack almost choked on the drink.

“She’s fine. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I was just curious.” She said in a way that Hiccup had doubts that she actually was curious. But he could be wrong. Maybe she really was interested in Emma’s life.

The girl definitely wouldn’t be crazy over this fact. Hiccup could almost imagine Emma making gagging noises after hearing that Jack’s real mother asked about her. Heck, he kinda wanted to see it.

Hiccup busied himself with looking up at the ceiling. Jack played with his fork and the remaining crumbs of the cake he still had on his plate.

“Jackie, don’t act like a child.” Eris commented one more time. “Put the fork away, so the waiter can take our plates away.”

Jack huffed under his nose, but did as he was told. He rested his chin on his palm with his elbows put on the table.

“Remember what I told you about elbows?”

One more time Jack did as he was told, but this time he had done it way slower than usual. Deliberately slow. On purpose. To rouse. He was playing with fire. The furrowed eyebrows of Eris told him so.

Please, can this afternoon just end?

“Jackie-“

But then a phone rang. Not Hiccup’s own, not Jack’s one, but his mother’s. At first she looked surprised and only after few seconds she started to search for it in her white purse.

It definitely was one of the newest models, however it looked like it was already used a lot of times.

“Hello?” Her sweet voice danced around them. “Oh, okay. I totally understand. Yeah, yeah, no problem sweetheart.”

After that she turned into a machine, programmed to hum contently, smile sweetly and laugh kindly at the perfect chosen times. She was nice, or she tried to seem nice. There was a veil of something mischievous, something suspicious, secretive and interesting which she had thrown over her persona the second she had clicked the button on her phone.

An actor playing in real life. A beautiful talent or most tragic curse.

Jack didn’t look interested in the conversation as he sat grumpily in his seat. Well, no wonder, after he had been reprimanded about almost everything he had done.

Eris finished the call, the happy, seductive and pristine demeanor crumbling down the second the phone was hidden. She massaged her temple with one hand and then looked at them.

“Sorry, dears, but I have to go. Do you want to order anything else and sit here?”

Jack sent him a quick glance and Hiccup shrugged. Jack should decide. It was his mother’s money and his time.

However judging by the tiredness seeping from his cerulean orbs, Hiccup knew the answer way before Jack spoke.

“No, we’re good. We’ll go out with you.” Jack said.

Eris called the waiter, paid for everything and asked to bring them their clothes. After that she put on her sparkling coat. She looked like a shimmering star between Hiccup and Jack – both dull and boring.

However Hiccup had to admit he was glad he was going out.

They said goodbyes to the worker at the door and exited the warm building into the coldness of the outside, not extravagant world.

“Do you need a ride somewhere?” Eris asked, looking at her son.

Jack shook his head.

“I borrowed North’s car.”

Eris smiled softly. The wind that passed them ruffled her hair similar to waves on the dark ocean.

She bent down and planted a kiss on Jack’s cheek.

“Call me if you need anything.” She said, touching Jack’s cheek with the back of her hand.

“Okay.”

She smiled at him one more time and then looked up, above Jack’s shoulder, at Hiccup.

“It was nice to meet you, Hiccup.”

“The pleasure was all mine.”

Eris nodded, patted Jack on the cheek and straightened her posture.

“Happy birthday, Jackie. Have a nice rest of the evening.” And with that she turned around and walked away, not glancing back at them.

Her silhouette was visible for few more seconds, until it dissolved into the darkness of the night around them. And it felt like someone turned off a valve. All tension left Hiccups body, seeping away, when he exhaled slowly through his nose.

Jack observed the road where his mother had disappeared for few more seconds – and for the first time this evening Hiccup couldn’t read Jack’s real emotions.

 

**And answers:**

 

wowee – Yeah, I hope the schedule will help me finally finish this story <3\. And hope you liked this chapter too (Valentine’s Day is not over yeeeeet) xD. Thank youuuu <hug>!

Toffyy – Everything will be alright <hug tightly>! Thank you, hon <3!

Live_fishbowl – Yass, thank you!! The chapters takes a lot to write, but somehow it easier for me to plan them? Because I don’t have to worry about the length of them xD? Does this makes sense? I hope so xD. Omg thank youuuuuu <3 <3 <3! Hope you liked the update!

chamiryokuroi – I totally agree xD!!!! I want them to smooch already, but ugghhhh! But we’re getting there xD!! Thank you!

Derpy_Dorky – Omg thanks =DD It makes me so happy <3 <3! Hope you liked this update too!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I liveeeeeee… somehow! I’m not that happy with this update? I rewrote it (like almost every chapter actually), but meh? I’m still not sure about it xDDD. Anyway, hope you like it!
> 
> Nerdy fact:
> 
> * the equilibrium constant – is a ratio of the concentration of the products to the concentration of the reactants. If the K value is less than one the reaction will move to the left and if the K value is greater than one the reaction will move to the right.
> 
> * the lead-acid battery – was invented in 1859 by Gaston Planté and is the oldest type of rechargeable battery. Despite having a very low energy-to-weight ratio and a low energy-to-volume ratio, its ability to supply high surge currents means that the cells have a relatively large power-to-weight ratio, so it is often used in motor vehicles to provide the high current required by automobile starter motors. Some of my teachers love to ask about this battery during lab tests xD.
> 
> * oxytocin – is a peptide hormone and neuropeptide. It plays a role in social bonding, sexual reproduction in both sexes, and during and after childbirth. My roommate told me that they give it to animals if they want to make a mother nurse babies (I think especially if they aren’t hers).
> 
> * ceramic – is an inorganic compound, non-metallic, solid material comprising metal, non-metal or metalloid atoms primarily held in ionic and covalent bonds. I never really liked learning about them, ughhh… I have bad memory of a lab where we had to make small bricks… xD
> 
> * smooth as regenerated cellulose fiber – regenerated cellulose fiber is used to produce rayon (artificial silk).
> 
> * titania – titanium dioxide and is used as a white pigment.
> 
> * ‘They were like magnetic field, exciting all his nuclei, forcing them to send a radio frequency signal so all his secrets could be shared’ – Hiccup is describing NMR here. I would explain more this method, but I can’t xD. Also there is a lot of theory behind it… Though it’s still cool, so go, check it out!
> 
> Other facts:
> 
> * Shirley Temple – non-alcoholic mixed drink traditionally made with ginger ale and a splash of grenadine, garnished with a maraschino cherry. Modern Shirley Temple recipes may substitute lemon-lime soda or lemonade and sometimes orange juice in part, or in whole. Also it is a reference to Camp Camp =D
> 
> * reservation – the reservation was for Eris’ surname – Pfeiffer – which is also the surname of Eris’ voice actor in the movie.
> 
> Thank you Reader for being here with me! Hope to see you soon!


	13. Coulomb's law

**Coulomb's law** – the force between two point charges is directly proportional to the magnitude of each charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. If the objects have the same charge, positive or negative, they will repel each other. If they have opposite charges, they will attract each other.

 

”Are you read to ditch this place?” Jack asked, turning around on his heel and swirling  the car keys on his pointing finger.

“Yes, please.” Hiccup huffed out.

The food was good, delicious even, but the atmosphere… Hiccup felt out of place. Like an unwanted substrate that was put into a mixture. It was doing nothing bad, but it still would be better, if it wasn’t there.

Jack chuckled and moved to the parking lot where he had left the car. He unlocked it and pointed with his head, asking Hiccup to hop in. Which he did, quickly, because the world outside was definitely below zero Celsius degree.

He fastened the seatbelt and then waited for Jack to start the engine. Which he didn’t do. The keys were put in the ignition, but the palm floated near them, hesitant, waiting or deciding on something.

Hiccup looked at Jack.

“Jack?”

“Do you…” The teen started, only to sigh and comb one hand through his white strands, messing them completely. Good, he looked better like that. More natural. More _Jack_. “… need to go home already?”

Did Hiccup have to go home already? No, but if he comes so early, then he will be able to catch up on few things – homework, project for the contest, tasks he has to do for additional labs. He could use this time.

But did he want to go home? No, not really. He preferred to spend more time with Jack and simply enjoy himself, forget about the, maybe not terrible, but definitely weird afternoon they just had.

Plus, he kinda still had to give Jack his present.

“You’re not expected at home? It’s your birthday and all…” Hiccup asked.

“No, North and Emma already gave me presents. And my family will come for a small party on Saturday, so yeah, I’m not expected to come home. Or at least come home pretty early.” Jack explained, glancing at him with hopeful smile.

Hiccup stared and stared, feeling something in him… something in him _growing_? Like fondness. Like a first spurt of a flower. Like a first short chain of a polymer appearing during the polymerization. And no, not in CCl 4*.

“So what are we waiting for? Let’s go somewhere!” Hiccup said, grinning from ear to ear.

Jack beamed, sparkled, shone like a star in a darkest night as he turned the key, started the car and drove onto the road.

They passed good few streets, until Hiccup finally decided to ask.

“And where exactly are we planning to go?”

* * *

Actually, it was hard to find a place that wasn’t swarmed with pairs and groups of people. Every café was packed, every arcade was full, even every fast food restaurant was crowded with couples.

Ah yeah, Hiccup remembered Tuff and Ruff complaining to him that they had to work on Valentine’s Day.

“Okay, this might be more difficult than I thought.” Jack mumbled, looking into a window of another pizzeria and finding it totally crowded.

“Yeah…” Hiccup nodded.

They should actually expect it. Come on, it was Valentine’s Day, people make reservations for seats few months earlier. And they were trying to find something at the very last minute.

However Hiccup actually was glad Jack didn’t try to get into one of these too crowded places, only drove by to check if there was miraculously any place left. Hiccup preferred to walk around in coldness than be swarmed by couples who were trying to do tonsillectomy. He had nothing against small pecks in public places, short kisses and hugs. But French kissing for few minutes was definitely disgusting.

“I don’t think there is any place here left where we can crash at.” Jack said, sounding defeated. One hand left the steering wheel to push the fringe away from his forehead.

“No wonder, actually.” Hiccup murmured.

“Shame.”

Yeah, it was a little bit sad. But hey, the wind was always blowing in their faces and they every time managed to pass through it and move forward. Or sometimes around it. So why shouldn’t they do it now?

Plus Jack really looked bummed out.

And Hiccup still kinda wanted to spend this evening with Jack. His real, very first Valentine’s Day spent with someone close. Fake boyfriend, but still. It wouldn’t be weird if someone saw them outside, together, spending time.

“Hey, Jack, why don’t we leave your car at your house and I don’t know… walk around the neighborhood?”

Jack glanced at him, but quickly returned his eyes to the road. His mouth twitched into a mischievous smirk which tugged at something in Hiccup’s chest. Gosh, was he starting to get sick? Maybe the walk outside wasn’t a good idea.

“You and walks? In this weather?” Jack asked.

Yeah, him and coldness? Never mixed well, but today – today Hiccup felt like he could make an exception.

He was making a lot of exceptions when he was around Jack. God, he had some bad influence on Hiccup.

“Do you want me to change my mind or–”

“Nope. Walk it is!”

* * *

They simply walked around the neighborhood. Five of six streets away from their houses, but close enough that it wouldn’t take them too long to go home if they needed. They talked a lot, about simple things, about important things, about nothing and everything in the same time. Jack complained a lot about Eris, huffing and groaning at her behavior that evening. Hiccup mostly listened during these moments, not sure what he should, or even could, add.

Hiccup talked about himself too. About Dagur – about what had happened between them during their last tutoring session.

They maneuvered around. Other couples passed them by, usually not even glancing or paying them any mind. Two or three times they saw a group of friends – they waved, the teenagers waved at Jack and Hiccup back, one girl whistled happily.

And even though it was freezing outside, Hiccup didn’t feel cold. The snow was crunching almost nicely under his feet, the wind was calming his warm cheeks, the lights were blinking happily above them.

It was nice.

Honestly nice. No stress, no need to pretend, no need to show the perfect image of himself outside. Just the two of them – he and Jack – strolling together around the neighborhood.

He felt the weight of his phone in his pocket. There was one new message from Aster, but Hiccup… he didn’t want to answer just yet. If he took out the phone, he would sense the tremors of excitement running down his spine. It was amazing and all, but now Hiccup didn’t want that. He didn’t need that spark of incitement right now. Because sometimes… sometimes it was tiring. It was exhausting to think what to say, how to act to accidentally not make a fool out of himself, to try to show the best image of himself.

Right now he didn’t want to deal with the stress of responding to Aster.

Because it was this – a stress – it was munching happily on Hiccup’s insides whenever he opened a message from Aster. And it was simply tiring. So the phone stayed in his pocket, forgotten.

“Hic?”

He hummed, closing his eyes and enjoying the soft, yet chilly breeze on his cheeks. Sometimes when he was breathing out, his glasses got fogged. Welp, he never had thought that wearing glasses in winter could be so troublesome.

Jack nudged him.

“Thanks.”

“For what?” Hiccup asked, not opening his eyes. He trusted Jack – he could hear his steps next to him, he heard his voice, he felt the warmness emanating from his body. Hiccup trusted Jack to lead them, without a fear of Hiccup falling down.

“For being there with me, at the dinner, duh?” Jack answered, like it was obvious. “So yeah, thanks… and thank you for defending me.”

Now Hiccup opened his eyes and glanced at his friend walking next to him – their shoulders almost glued together at this point.

“Uhh?”

Jack wasn’t looking at him. He probably wasn’t doing it for some time now. But there was a wave of resolution taking over the façade, because Jack exhaled slowly and glanced at Hiccup.

There was a skip and then there was silence inside Hiccup’s chest.

“You know, defending me in math and all that shit…” Jack said, weirdly slow, like it was hard to speak and stare at Hiccup both in the same time.

“No problem.” Hiccup responded. “Especially as I spoke the truth.”

“You don’t have to pretend.” Jack chuckled softly.

“I’m not.” Hiccup raised one eyebrow, perplexed by what he was hearing.

Jack blinked, slowly, but repeatedly. Like a robot – no, an android – that was opening his eyes and seeing everything for the very first time.

Was it so hard to believe that Jack was good in something? Many people admired him for his talent in sports, or that he managed to prank so many people, or that he simply was so cool. Everyone loved the perfect image of Jack. But when Hiccup complimented him, Jack acted like he never had been taught how to take one. Or how to believe them.

It was sad to look at. So Hiccup wanted to show that what he was feeling and thinking was the honest truth.

“Jack, you’re amazing in more things than you can probably imagine.” Hiccup said, glancing at his friend.

Jack’s eyes widened for a short span of seconds. He looked like a lost child, not sure what to do when they were put in a new situation. But there was a honest hope peeking from somewhere behind a cerulean curtain of his eyes.

Was Jack not used to being praised? Or maybe that was wrong. Was Jack not used to believe the praises and compliments spoken to him?

“You-” He croaked out. A voice which he quickly covered with a cough. “You mean it?”

Hiccup nodded, but this tiny, insignificant movement was too small. No, Hiccup had to voice that one out. He knew sometimes actions spoke louder than words, but the nod here wasn’t enough.

“Yeah, I mean it.” He confirmed with his words, lifting the corners of his lips in something he hoped was a comforting smile.

And Jack… Jack was radiant in this moment when the grin – the same kind, sheepish, hesitant grin Hiccup adored so much – appeared on his mouth.

(Wait, _adored_? No, there had to be an error in the code. Hiccup’s brain needed to fix it, quick!)

Then there was Jack’s hand over Hiccup’s shoulder, bringing him in for a quick half-hug. It lasted for few seconds – no more, no less – and then Hiccup was free of the confinement.

“Thanks, Hic.”

A silence, a drop fell in, there were first smudges of color in the mixture. Close to the end of titration.

As quick as the hug started, it was gone. Just like Hiccup preferred for hugs to last, if he had to participate in them.

“You’re ready to finish this evening?” Jack asked, when he moved away.

It took Hiccup way too long to move the sleeve higher to check the time. Shit, it was already so late?

“Oh, shit. Dad will kill me…”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Hiccup laughed at that. Seriously, sometimes he simply couldn’t believe Jack.

“We better hurry up.”

* * *

They were in front of Hiccup’s door in almost no time. Okay maybe in seven minutes or so? But they had quite good pace. Hiccup definitely didn’t look like he wanted to be more late than he already was now.

When they stopped near the front door Hiccup was totally out of breath. Jack only needed to take one deep breath and long exhale to be more over back to normal.

Hiccup leaned on the wall with the hand on his chest.

“That hard?” Jack asked, amused.

“Yeah, I’m pretty out of shape.”

“I can see.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but only after another big gulps of chilling air filled his lungs he managed to stand up more over properly. He took off his backpack, unzipped it and started to rummage through it.

O-kay?

“Wait a second…” Hiccup hummed, sticking his tongue out and pushing his hand further into the bottomless pit that was his backpack.

Some women had bags, Hiccup had his backpack. Honestly, Jack had seen him taking out a lot of things. Was it some kind bag of holding* or what?

Hiccup made an uncoherent shout of victory as he finally took out a rectangular… something out of his backpack. The colorful wrapping paper was torn in some places and stuck together askew in others, but it still seemed like someone put a lot of work in it.

Jack glanced at Hiccup, rising his eyebrow.

“Uhm…?”

“It’s for you, dumbass. Your birthday present… for you… from me.” Hiccup said, but the nonchalance and confidence was leaving his body with every spoken word, until in the end he turned his gaze away. “I know it’s probably not much.”

Jack blinked, quickly shaking himself away from his dazed mind. A present? From Hiccup? Well, of course, his friend had given him gifts today and he had been happy after receiving them, but… it was Hiccup.

His crush.

His crush gave him a present!

Hiccup also had given him two beautiful lilacs for Christmas. The two most delightful trees Jack had seen in his entire life. But back then his feelings hadn’t been… stable? Coherent? Fully formed? Back then the beating of his heart had been something Jack couldn’t name. Now he knew why it had been acting like that.

Which made this situation even more unbearable.

Jack didn’t expect Hiccup to actually give him anything. He would be happy, if Hiccup gave him a trashbag.

Only when Jack raised his hand, he found out he was shaking. Shit, shit, shit. He had to control himself somehow! But how could he do it when his heart was hammering so loud – louder and _louder_ and **_louder_** – in his chest.

He felt Hiccup’s gaze on himself.

His fingers trembled, but he managed to tear the paper and unravel his present. A game. But not a simple game. A game that was on his mind for quite a lot of time and he was collecting money to finally buy this precious, little game. Only he didn’t have to do it anymore. Because he had it right now in his very own hands.

Was it a dream? If yes, then please let him sleep forever and ever, thank you very much.

Hiccup cleared his throat and only then Jack kinda found out that he was gaping at the game for at least a good minute and a half. And his mouth was also hanging open. Yeah. He definitely looked like the most handsome man on the whole Earth right now.

“Do you like it?” Hiccup asked, rising his hand and correcting the glasses hesitantly.

“Do I like it?” Jack asked, bewilderment clearly audible in his voice. “Hiccup, honey, sorry but I don’t think I can be your boyfriend anymore, because clearly this is my new soulmate.” Jack said, moving the game to his mouth and giving it a big, long kiss.

Hiccup stared at him, blinked, huffed and then finally burst out in laughter.

“I’m happy you like it.”

“I love it.” Jack said, kissing the cover one more time.

“Good.” Hiccup nodded, smiling from ear to ear.

Jack’s felt his heart hammering, splitting apart and coming back together in a millisecond when he saw that grin. That was terrible. A smile – it wasn’t that much – a mere movement of facial muscles, yet it made Jack crazy inside, affection overpowering his core, heating it up.

Crushes were terrible and painful.

Yet he felt good. It was a soaring pain – a pinching, prickling sensation somewhere in his chest – but that one twitch of lips was enough to make Jack forget about his problem.

It was amazing and terrifying.

Jack felt like hugging the living daylights out of Hiccup. He felt like wrapping his all limbs around the smaller teen, bringing him in for a tightest embrace he had ever experienced.

Can he do it? Or did he use all his coupons by asking Hiccup to go meet Eris? Would it be too much to ask from this day?

Jack mulled the idea over in his head – looking at it from different perspectives, breaking it in half, then into four parts, then eight, only to combine the pieces back together in different order – hoping and praying that maybe this way he would know whether he should just surrender to his needs.

The cogs inside his brain moved.

Hiccup stared at him or at least Jack had a feeling he was staring at him, because one second he was far away in his mind and then there were fingers snapping in front of his eyes.

“Jack? Are you still with me?”

He quickly shook his head, literally, before glancing at Hiccup who was perking at him with curious, calculating gaze. Heh, weird. When they first had met this stare was cold, emotionless, almost robotic. Jack had remembered that he had felt like he had been disarmed under that gaze, like Hiccup had needed one look, peek and he could read you like some kind of an instruction. Few months later the calculating, stoic gaze didn’t change, yet the coldness disappeared. No, maybe it never had been a coldness that Jack had sensed, but the pure desperation of trying to understand another person.

Just like now.

“Yeah, just…” Fuck, was Jack seriously going for it? “I just wondered if you… I mean... I’m going back to my home… and it was kinda a tradition, but…” Yop, he was lost, he was a tangled mess.

But then Hiccup sighed – like really loud and long – the air exiting his mouth, forming a tiny, fluffy cloud in front of his face. He took his other hand from his pocket and opened his arms.

“Come here, you goofball.” Hiccup said, the voice tried to sound confident, but Jack could see a blush adorning his cheek. Not to mention he looked away, eyes jumping, leaping far, far away from Jack.

But he didn’t mind.

“You sure?” Jack asked, already feeling a smile forming on his lips.

“Don’t make me change my mind…” Hiccup growled, stealing a small peek at Jack, but grumpily looking away one more time. “My hands are starting to get tired.”

It wasn’t even half a minute.

But Jack didn’t need more encouragement.

He stepped closer and wrapped his hands around Hiccup, bringing him in for a hug.

This time the younger boy in his arms returned the embrace faster, yet still a little bit clumsily. His hands held dearly onto folds of Jack’s jacket on his back.

There was a spark, no, an explosion, no, no, a waterfall, a storm, a supernova, just something blissful erupting inside Jack chest as he put his chin on Hiccup’s head, taking a short inhale.

His heart slowed down, it was now beating softly, steadily in his chest. Content – this was a good word to describe Jack’s mind. He felt safe, calm, like there was a sudden peace overpowering all his limbs.

It was almost kinda… weird.

Lately whenever he had been around Hiccup the butterflies inside his stomach hadn’t wanted to calm down, but now, when he held Hiccup like that, they weren’t even fluttering their tiny wings.

Yet, Jack felt that his heart didn’t change its mind. Heh, off.

Jack moved away, feeling a smile forming on his lips. He didn’t want to step away, but he knew Hiccup wouldn’t be too comfortable with hugging him for too long. It was actually kinda amazing that it was the nerdy teen who had proposed it in the first place.

“Consider it the rest of your birthday present…” Hiccup mumbled, losing the grip on Jack’s jacket and moving away.

Huh, was Jack’s eyes deceiving him, or was Hiccup blushing? Huh, no, it was definitely because Jack hugged him for too long. And probably smashed poor boy’s face into his own chest. Ooops.

“Thanks, Hic.” Jack said, ruffling his hat. With that he turned around and moved few steps away, before glancing back. “See ya later?”

“See you, Jack.”

Jack waved his hand and turned around to return to his own home.

No, Jack’s eyes definitely weren’t working properly. Because from the corner of his eyes he had seen a movement in Hiccup’s living room, like someone moved the curtain. Nah, that was impossible, Jack definitely was only tired after such eventful day.

He needed sleep.

Yeah, that sounded good.

* * *

Hiccup clasped his cheeks, touching the skin with his own cold, hands. Shit, yeah, they were burning. Why? Why he felt a burning sensation under his skin there?

Maybe he was starting to get sick? It was possible. Especially as he had spent around two hours walking with Jack in the freezing weather.

Okay, okay, okay…

Hiccup took off his jacket and hung it on the hook. Then he started to get off his shoes, but with frozen hands it was quite impossible. After few minutes he managed to take off one shoe, but lost his balance.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

He waved his hands, trying to find last hints of balance, but his body was moving quickly back, or actually falling down. And Hiccup’s back would definitely meet the cold, hard floor, if it didn’t bump into something definitely warmer than the ground.

Hiccup glanced up at his father’s face.

“Oh.” He blinked. “Hey, Dad...”

Stoick murmured his own greetings in response, but due to his beard and Hiccup still fighting with shoes, he didn’t quite catch what the older male was speaking. A painful minute later Hiccup was out of his shoes.

He was about to pass his father to get to his own room when he heard a voice behind him:

“Hiccup?”

Uh oh, what did he do now? Hiccup had told his father that he was going out today with Jack to the dinner with his mother. And even though at first Stoick had been surprised, he hadn’t asked questions.

Well, maybe he should have called and tell him that he would be late, but come on, it was only few minutes!

“Sorry Dad that I’m late, but it’s only like few minutes!” Hiccup quickly said, rising his hands in front of himself. “Plus I was at the front porch! So technically, if you consider the front and back yard as our house I wasn’t late, because I was here on time.”

Stoick just… stared at him. The eyes suddenly shone, but then the light faded away, as the man closed his mouth. It looked like he wanted to say something, add some kind of thought into Hiccup’s monologue, but lost the hint, the idea of what he wanted to say.

Toothless meowed loudly and brushed himself on Hiccup’s leg, looking at him with scrutinizing gaze. He was probably hungry.

Hiccup leaned and scratched the cat behind his ear, which flicked down.

“It’s… it’s okay, Hiccup, I’m not mad at you for being late.”

Hiccup glanced back at his father.

Okay, definitely something was wrong. Stoick’s whole behavior was simply off. He was brushing his fingers together, like he wanted to get the invisible dirt off his skin and his eyes stared at Hiccup, but they weren’t looking at him, but at a faraway point somewhere behind him.

“O…kay?”

Stoick opened his mouth and closed it. Then did it one more time, but also this time the voice didn’t leave his mouth.

Okay what was wrong?

“Dad, everything’s okay? You don’t have to hide if you’re mad at me.” Hiccup mumbled.

It felt weird, because in this very moment he was the one trying to look right into his father’s eyes. It was strange to be on the opposite end. Usually it was Hiccup who was running away with his gaze, but not now.

“Yeah, yeah, everything is okay. Don’t worry. I just…” The man started once again, only to not utter any more words.

But this time Hiccup managed to catch his father gaze and something flickered inside of it. The feeling was familiar, the glint was well known, Hiccup knew he had seen and felt it somewhere, but couldn’t pinpoint now what it meant.

It unnerved him.

“… I just wanted to ask if you want dinner? I can warm it up in a bit.”

This definitely wasn’t the thing that Hiccup’s father wanted to say. Hiccup felt it, he could sense it in deflating voice and slumping down muscles.

“Oh…” But what could he do? ”Sure, why not?”

Stoick nodded and moved to the kitchen.

Okay, Hiccup was puzzled, in lack for a better word here. He knew that this definitely wasn’t what Stoick had wanted to ask about. Should he pursue him and nudge or leave alone and hope that the man will finally voice his concerns?

Hiccup hated when someone was asking over and over again about his problems. He preferred to be the one starting talking about them. This way it felt like he had some kind of control over them. Or maybe simply he didn’t like people interfering with his personal life.

Hiccup stared at his father’s posture, who was moving near the cooker.

In the end he lifted his backpack and moved to his room. Maybe his father will one day finally say what was troubling him?

Or maybe Hiccup just made a big mistake? He wasn’t sure.

The warmness he had felt while hugging Jack disappeared somewhere, leaving him only with some sad, cold memory residing inside his bones.

* * *

Yet another day in paradise.

Hiccup huffed loudly as he stopped in front of the library door. He gripped the strap of his backpack tighter.

But today it wasn’t fear which was emanating from and inside his body. It was the anger, still sizzling at the back of his mind, still fuming and boiling and evaporating somewhere inside his chest.

It wasn’t as big as it had used to be few days ago. But it was still there. And at this point he wasn’t sure whether it was even good to be mad at that or like that.

Maybe it was because it concerned Dagur. Which kinda surprised Hiccup why the hell he cared so much that Dagur wanted to – what? Amend? Apologize somehow? He couldn’t understand why it irritated him so much that the teen though that it all could be so simple, like the older boy didn’t leave a giant scar inside Hiccup’s mind.

Hiccup felt mad… but he also wasn’t comfortable with himself right now.

Of course, he often was angry, especially when his friends were doing stupid stunts or when something wasn’t going as he planned, but this anger was different. It was more… emotional. It was more vivid.

It was almost painful.

Yet it was there and no matter how many inhales Hiccup took, he couldn’t get rid of it.

Well he still had to get this afternoon over with.

Only two more months and it all be over. Shit, two months was a long span of time.

Hiccup walked into the library – again. Professor Robinson had asked him today, if they could work here today too, as he had few students who had to retake a test after classes. Hiccup reluctantly agreed.

The woman behind the counter lifted her head and nodded at him. Hiccup did the same too.

There were more people around, which was pretty audible in louder whispers swarming around the main room. Few people glanced at him when he entered, but other than that they paid him no mind.

Well time to die, Hiccup’s brain told him as he moved to the adjacent room hiding behind the door. With one last long sigh, Hiccup walked inside.

Dagur was already there, sitting on a chair and looking at something on his phone. It didn’t look like he noticed Hiccup, as he didn’t even lift his head at him.

Actually this fact surprised Hiccup a lot. Dagur was never late – on the contrary, he was always the first person to show up.

He made few steps forward and cleared his throat.

Okay, shame that Hiccup didn’t have his phone out of the pocket, because, seriously, the video he could make now would be priceless.

Dagur jumped, startled by Hiccup’s voice probably. His phone literally leaped from his hand into the air. Hiccup could only observe as the teen tried to grab the device with the other hand, only to hit it higher. The phone made few backflips and then Dagur attacked one more time. He caught his phone, but it somehow miraculously slipped from his grip. Then the phone made one last magnificent somersault and landed on the table with a giant flop resonating in the room.

Somewhere in Hiccup’s head there was a pang of guilt when he saw Dagur slowly lifting the phone to check if the screen was cracked. It didn’t look like that was the case, because his shoulders moved down in combination with a sigh leaving his lips.

The pang of guilt was quickly replaced by the chuckle suddenly leaving Hiccup’s mouth.

Shit, he didn’t mean to laugh at Dagur in front of him! Maybe later in his house, replaying the situation over and over in his head, but definitely not now!

And then Dagur glared at him with eyebrows furrowing in anger and somehow, seriously, it made Hiccup snort even harder. Both his hands flew to his mouth and clasped it shut, but the giggles were still audible.

Hiccup begged his body to stop.

He observed with growing fear in his stomach as Dagur’s eyebrows moved now dangerously close to each other.

Okay, this was the day of his death. Hiccup thought that Dagur would snap one day. He never expected that it would happen today and because Hiccup had scared him by clearing his throat.

But well… it was more or less a good life. Maybe not perfect, filled with hundreds of embarrassing situations and moments, but he had met nice people and had spent good times with them. He had fun.

Time to say goodbye.

Can he call his father one last time and tell him that he love him?

Hiccup was prepared for anything. Really. For Dagur shoving him into the wall and kicking him, for him starting to yell and shout at him, for Dagur to punch him.

Everything!

He wasn’t prepared for Dagur slumping down on the chair while grumpily crossing his hands on the chest and looking away.

Was Hiccup spared a life? Was this really happening!?

The laughter died down in his throat and Hiccup could finally set his mouth free. He stared at Dagur’s silhouette on the chair, trying to grasp that what actually had happened in front of his own eyes had been reality.

Hiccup pinched the skin on his palm. Ouch, yep, he wasn’t sleeping.

“Are you going to stand there and laugh at me for the whole afternoon?” Dagur asked and, oh boy, he didn’t sound like he was in a good mood now.

Great, and it wasn’t even Hiccup’s fault. Well, kinda was, but he hadn’t planned to embarrass him. It was the last thing he wanted to do to Dagur.

Yet, they still had a lot to work on, so Hiccup moved to the chair on the opposite side of the table and slumped down, bringing his backpack onto his lap. He searched through it for the folder with his blueprints. He found it somewhere at the back and took out to put on the table.

But in the middle of this process he caught a glimpse of Dagur’s face.

It was red. Maybe not as bright red as a potassium ferricyanide*, but there was significant smudge in color of manganese(II) chloride tetrahydrate* on his cheeks.

Okay, okay, okay, there was no way that Hiccup was in his own world. Because simply there was no chances of Dagur blushing in front of Hiccup… or anyone actually.

But he’s just human – some voice murmured behind Hiccup’s left ear – it’s normal.

However was it normal to Dagur?

Hiccup wasn’t sure. The only times Hiccup had seen the teen was when he had been around his rowdy friends or when he had tried to make a move on Hiccup. And in both situations Dagur always had looked menacingly strong – not like a person who could blush easily. Well maybe in anger, but not due to embarrassment.

Dagur lifted his one eyebrow, when he found Hiccup actually gaping at him. Great, just great.

Hiccup quickly shook his head, spread over the blueprints and then took out his project for inspections.

* * *

“So what do you think Jack?”

Jack only hummed in response, tapping his chin.

“I think next week is good. Only we need to check if the volleyball team is still having practices in the morning. Other way we will have to stay outside.” Jack said, trying to remember if he had seen one member of the volleyball team exiting Gym in the mornings during the last week.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about them.” The captain of the team said, nodding. He switched his weight to the other leg. “I need to call Jasmine and ask her.”

“Her phone is broken. You need to catch her personally.” Jack quickly added.

The teen nodded at that, not even slightly surprised from where Jack had this kind of information. Maybe because he even often called Jack his ‘social network’. It wasn’t Jack’s fault that he had good relations with many people from this school.

“Okay, I’ll do that.” The boy started. “But in the meantime can you text Johnny and–”

Unfortunately (or not) Jack didn’t catch what he was supposed to do more, because he found his own wrist being tugged painfully.

“Jack, you need to come with me for a second!” Said the colorful blur that caught him in their grasp.

Jack only after few seconds fully comprehended what had happened. But by the time his brain caught up with the flow of incidents, they were already few corridors away from his team captain.

Ah shoot, he didn’t even say goodbye. Welp, he will have to message him later. Now Jack apparently had more important matters on his head… er hand? Wrist? Matters that were tugging him who knows where.

“Tooth!” Jack gasped. Why were they running? Nothing was following them! “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere private!” Was the only response he got from his friend as she made a turn and then…

Literally ran into a girls’ bathroom. What, what, what!?

“Tooth, I can’t go-“

“Shush, no one we’ll find us here!”

To be fair, it was deserted, nor it really looked like many people used it. The limescale on the sink was an indication that even charwoman didn’t often visit this place. Yikes.

Tooth closed the door, checking if no one was nearby. Only then she finally let go of Jack’s wrist.

The boy massaged the abused place. Damn, Tooth didn’t look like she could hold much power in her small body, but the grip had been deadly. It kinda hurt even now.

Jack hissed, tuning his palm around and checking if everything was alright with it. Gladly it was, even though it didn’t feel like so.

“So, what is the reason of you dragging me around? You could always call me if you wanted privacy.” Jack asked, rising his eyebrow, only now trying the grasp the ridicule of this whole situation. It had to look like a scene from a movie. Damn, Jack wished they had passed more people.

“I laid my hands on quite useful information.” Tooth turned to him, smiling menacingly and leaning on the door to the bathroom.

“Okay?”

“You don’t look very interested.”

“That’s because I still have no idea what you’re talking about. Plus I’m in girls’ bathroom! It feels weird!” Jack sighed, waving his hands to show his point.

Only now he finally turned around to fully look at the place and well… he kinda expected it to look a little bit different. Girls, at least in their school, were always complaining about the smell coming from boy’s bathroom and how it was so disgusting. And maybe because of that Jack expected the girls’ bathroom to look totally different.

Newsflash – it didn’t. The walls were still covered in graffiti, meaningful and not quotes and random hearts shot right through the middle with arrows. And Jack didn’t even want to know how the cabins looked. But well, to be perfectly honest, it didn’t smell here.

However neither boys nor girls had soap and paper towels. Well…

“Don’t worry Jack. I won’t open Chamber of Secrets, so you can chill. Besides not many girls come here.”

“I can see. And it doesn’t make me more comfortable actually.” Jack said, moving to the window. It was pretty low, so he could easily sit on the windowsill. “You could kill me here and no one would find a body.”

Tooth hummed, walking to the mirror which was hanging above the sinks. She glanced at her face, lifting and pushing skin to check if her eyeliner stayed in one place. After she was content with the results (or the lack of it) she nodded to herself.

“Ah you have me sussed out.” She said, turning around and leaning on the sink. “But killing you have to wait. I just heard the juiciest information.”

“Okay, spill the beans.” Jack got more comfortable on the windowsill. At least as more comfortable as he could, when the coldness was seeping into him. Damn it was chilly here, even for him. Maybe that’s why girls never used this bathroom. You could literally freeze here.

“Okay, so listen close…”

Jack had no idea what Tooth meant, but for the next four minutes or so she described to Jack how she came to obtain an important information. There were a lot of names, a lot of secrets that shouldn’t be spilled and apparently a lot of alcohol.

“Tooth, to the point!”

“Aster has a crush on someone!” Tooth burst out.

Jack only… stared.

It felt like suddenly his brain stopped responding. Every program became fuzzy and Jack desperately wanted to press ctrl, alt and delete to close some tabs and be able to open them again. But unfortunately he couldn’t turn off and on his mind to make it work properly.

So it took a lot of time for his brain to finally catch up with Tooth’s words. And when he finally processed the meaning of them, the only thing he could say was:

“And… what does this change?”

Tooth blinked, taken aback by his neutral response. Jack could see that she was expecting totally different reply.

“It changes everything!” Tooth shouted.

Jack lifted his eyebrow and crossed hands on his chest, showing that he was doubting what his friend was speaking about.

Because honestly, the numbers didn’t add in his head. So what? Aster had a crush on someone. This didn’t actually change a thing in Jack’s opinion. Beside this wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened actually.

“Like what does it change?” Jack asked, curious.

Tooth opened her mouth and there was even a start of a sentence coming out from it, but then she shut it. Her eyes jumped from Jack to the window behind him, then to the floor and once again up at him.

“Well, maybe it doesn’t change everything, but you can’t deny that it can play a part in this.” She finally stated.

Jack sighed.

“Yeah, this I can’t deny. But Tooth, you know Aster. Remember the last time he had a crush on someone?”

Tooth nodded.

“Oh, yeah, Punzie. I remember.”

“Right? And did he act different then?” Jack hummed, tilting his head.

“Well, no…” She started slowly, only to turn to Jack with fire blazing in her eyes. “But now it could be different.”

Jack sighed once again.

“I actually… doubt it. If I have to be honest.” Jack said, lifting the hand and scratching the back of his head. “I mean, I understand you and I understand why you’re worried. However Aster did tell us that he had a crush on Rapunzel well… after everything finally ended. And well he was kinda sad when he found out Flynn was going out with her, but it wasn’t… back then he wasn’t acting like he is acting now.” Damn, he hoped Tooth could understand him.

The girl’s shoulders slumped down. She furrowed her eyebrows with the hand flying to her mouth to tap on the lips few times. Miraculously she didn’t smear her lipstick at all. Women…

“Maybe you’re right. I don’t know why, but I feel this could be important.” She said.

“How can you tell?”

“Women’s intuition.”

Jack would scoff, if he didn’t believe it. But he kinda did. Tooth usually was right in these kind of topics.

She had been the first one to notice that Heather had started to feel something for Jack after all.

Jack exhaled, pondering the idea over in his brain.

“Okay, so let’s consider that Aster’s little secret crush play a role in his different behavior now. The only question is now – why?”

“Easy. It had to be someone with whom he doesn’t have any chances.” Tooth proudly said, puffing out her chest with mirth dancing in the corner of her lips. That smile didn’t fit the topic of their conversation at all.

“Okay.” Jack nodded. ”Care to elaborate?”

Tooth rolled her eyes, like she was asked to explain something really easy and plain visible. Jack had to disagree with her. He totally had no idea what she meant.

“Okay, so my theory is that Aster has a crush on someone who is already taken or a person who definitely is in love with someone else. And because he thinks he doesn’t have any chances or he doesn’t want to interfere, he is grumpy.”

“Okay, but this doesn’t explain why he is acting so different around me!” Jack scoffed.

The girl hummed.

“Maybe it’s you?”

“Me?” Jack blinked.

“Yeah.”

At that he only shuddered. Damn, that idea kinda terrified him. Best-friends and secret crushes didn’t mix up well together. Nu-huh, he heard enough to know that usually this kind of things ended in disasters.

Life wasn’t some rom-com sweet romance movie.

“Yeah, any other options?” For now Jack wanted to forget about this idea.

“Well, the other option is Hiccup.”

Jack’s heart leaped into his throat painfully.

Hiccup? Why Hiccup? From what Jack knew neither Aster nor Hiccup had talked with each other before the whole fake-dating thing started. Of course, there was the case of Hiccup’s crush on Aster, but from what he knew it was all from far away.

Or at least had been until this year started.

“Uhm… w-why?” Fuck, did Jack really stutter? Oh, yeah, he did.

“I mean, it would make sense. He started being like that after you and Hiccup started going out.”

Well, she kinda was right.

“But why didn’t he act different from the very first moment he found out about it?”

“I don’t know Jack. It’s just speculations at this point.” Tooth shrugged.

Gladly it didn’t look like she noticed his mistake. Or if she did, she paid it no mind.

Okay, okay, these were only speculations and ideas, but every choice presented to Jack was more terrifying than the last one.

“Okay.” He said out loud, combing his fingers through his hair. “Any other ideas?”

At this point Tooth had to stop to think. She dropped her gaze and furrowed her eyebrows few times – her mouth moved, forming unspoken words. Only after few minutes – or maybe seconds, but at this point Jack felt like they had spent an eternity here – Tooth, finally opened her mouth:

“My other guess is Heather.”

Okay, that, that just didn’t fit.

The surprise had to be clearly visible on Jack’s face, because Tooth continued:

“Maybe he is upset that you hurt her.” She proposed, crossing her arms on her chest. The bracelets rattled sadly with the sound of them echoing in the empty bathroom. “I mean, you jumped for the first chance to get rid of her. One day you are free and next one you are surprisingly with someone else. It really had to hurt her.”

When Tooth said it like that, she was kinda speaking the truth. Ugh, it didn’t sound too good.

When Jack was staring at the past, it really had looked suspicious. One day everything had been fine and dandy and then – boom! both he and Hiccup had dropped the bomb onto the world. Jack couldn’t imagine the pain that had strung poor Heather’s heart when she had found out about that.

Jack’s heart hammered inside his chest. Shit, had they made a terrible mistake? Maybe pretending to fake-date Hiccup wasn’t the best choice in that situation? Maybe they had fucked up pretty bad because of that?

All his problems with Aster had started after that… And to be honest he preferred to have Heather still following him than his best-friend not talking with him.

However there was a more, nagging problem at the back of his head. Or maybe at the front of his heart. Hiccup. Because now Jack didn’t know if he could let go.

He felt happy pretending to date Hiccup, he liked taking him and late evening dates around the neighborhood, he liked hugging him at the end of their meetings without people judging them. And Jack was simply afraid that he could lose it all, if he decided to finish it.

However he also wanted Aster back.

His breath hitched – the storm broke through his chest, rippling it, a lightning hit, breaking it all in half.

What should he do?

“Jack?”

“But that still doesn’t explain why he started acting like that after some time.” He quickly stated.

Thump, thump, thump…

Tooth nodded, leaning on the sink.

“Yeah, that’s why it’s all just speculations at this point.”

“So we basically didn’t move forward?”

“No, we-“ Tooth started, only to blink and hung her head. “Maybe we didn’t move forward in the end.”

Jack didn’t know what to think about all of it. Somehow the further he got in trying to decipher Aster, the more complicated his own feelings were getting.

“So the only thing we can do now is observe?”

“I… yeah, I believe so.”

Jack smiled sadly and then jumped off the windowsill. He moved past Tooth to the exit, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

“Jack…” Tooth was staring at him, some kind of resolve shining in her purple eyes. “It’s going to be okay.”

Jack lifted his hand and put it on Tooth’s palm which still rested on his shoulder.

“I know, Tooth.”

Only life wasn’t some kind of a fairytale. The okay that Jack wanted and the okay that could happen in the future were two different things.

Tooth smiled in response and then let go of Jack’s shoulder.

“Shall we go out?” Jack proposed.

“Aww, you don’t want to look around more? You’re in the girls’ bathroom for the very first time. Some people would kill to be in your place!”

Jack wasn’t sure if some normal human being would kill to be able to step inside a girls’ bathroom, but yeah…

“Of course.” Jack rolled his eyes, with a playful smirk hiding somewhere in the corners of his mouth. “Whatever you say.”

“Oh, you just can’t see the good sides now!” Tooth shouted happily, swinging the door open to check if someone was on the corridor. Jack didn’t have the heart to tell her that her voice would bust them out instantly.

“I’m not sure I even want to see the good sides now.”

“Aww sometimes you’re no fun Jack. You’re getting old.”

W-what? Did Tooth really dare to say that!? How could she!?

Jack spluttered incoherent words as he stepped out of the bathroom, trying to grasp how and what to answer. Because maybe, maybe she was right? Maybe he was getting old! He didn’t make a prank in like forever! What if someone decided that he wasn’t the King of Pranksters anymore?!

No, he needed to change that! No more slacking off!

He just needed to come up with a plan.

* * *

Hiccup stared and stared and he still didn’t know which one he should actually pick.

Dagur had given him pretty solid advices. And back then Hiccup had been so foolish that he had thought he could remember all things the other teen had said. But apparently not.

Should he pick this USB board? Or maybe the other? Why would he even need a USB board! He wasn’t going to plug in a computer! Or maybe Dagur was talking about this microcontroller? No… Yes! Wait, he did say a name of a company from which Hiccup should have bought it.

Hiccup sighed as he put all products back onto a shelf. Yop, he was fucked. Next time he definitely will write every word coming out from Dagur’s mouth in term of mechanics and robotics like it was some kind of a prophecy.

So him going out was a waste of time. And he could be at home, drinking hot cocoa, skyping with Fishlegs, Astrid, Ruff, Tuff and Snotlout… Coming to this they already spammed the chat they had on Facebook. Meh… hopefully there wasn’t anything important there.

Hiccup stood up and walked slowly through the store to the exit. He had a feeling a worker was eyeing him suspiciously. Great, this was what he needed right now. Someone looking at him weirdly. He wasn’t stealing anything! He was just a guy who was trying to buy parts to finish this damned Robotic Project. A simple thing – a small robot that would check the soil hydration! Hiccup wanted for the robot to also check the pH of the soil and the amount of light directed at it, but Dagur had said that it would be too much work. But he had said that he could think about it.

But coming to this now, Hiccup was glad that Dagur had said that Hiccup should focus on something smaller. Because he wasn’t sure he could have done anything bigger.

Only more or less two months were left. Can Hiccup make it? He wasn’t sure now. Welp, he hadn’t been sure earlier, but now… now it was even worse.

“Hiccup?”

Maybe he should tell Professor Robinson that he can’t make it. No, now it was too late to back off. Fuck, he should be more assertive and not be easily convinced to do something under the influence of those damned puppy eyes of his favourite teacher.

“Erm…?”

No, he had to focus. He can do it. Snotlout once had built small things. Or maybe not had built, but repaired a lot of things Tuffnut had broken. Maybe he would know what to do in his situation. Because let’s be real, Hiccup didn’t want to ask Dagur for his number, so he could ask him a lot of questions. Nope.

“You’re going to crash into the shelf.”

Was someone calling him or was it just his imagination? With his lack of sleep nowadays he wouldn’t be surprised if he started hearing voices. Like right now. Maybe he should drink some Mountain Dew Red*? No, they were discontinued in the nineties-

“Hiccup!”

And in this very moment he found out that no, this voice wasn’t inside his head, but was a part of reality. And yes, he crashed into a shelf, hitting his knee quite painfully in the process.

Few products clattered loudly to the ground

“Shit!” Hiccup hissed, closing his eyes and kneeling to hug his leg.

Damn, it really hurt.

Many things changed this year, but his luck was still the same. It was good to at least have one constant thing in his life.

There was movement behind him, or maybe next to him. Hiccup wasn’t sure as he still sensed the striking feeling running up from his good leg to his hip. Great.

Someone kneeled next to him and started to gather the things scattered all over the floor.

Hiccup lifted his one eyelid.

“Thanks, but I can manage on my own.”

“I know.” But the person didn’t stop picking up the products.

Hiccup blinked. A lone bulb started to blink inside his head. He knew this voice. Fuck, he knew this voice. Aster!

Hiccup lifted his face to stare at the teen.

Aster was picking up the CD cases, but when he probably felt Hiccup staring at him, he lifted his head.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

Hiccup could only stare for few more seconds, before he snorted under his nose and started to clean up the mess he had made.

“This feels like déjà vu.”

They had met once like that. And back then Hiccup had also hurt himself. Well, everyone knew how clumsy he could get, so it wasn’t like he could get even worse reputation.

“A little bit, but this time you hit your knee.” Aster answered and then stood up with arms full of CD cases.

Hiccup wondered briefly if they were made from HIPS*. Maybe?

“Wow, what a change.” Hiccup counterattacked, smiling under his nose as he also stood up and started to sort the cases he had in correct places.

“I think a better change would be, if you stopped hitting yourself accidentally.”

“I doubt it’s going to happen in the near future.”

The corners of Aster’s mouth twitched upwards. Hiccup noticed that he rarely smiled fully. Usually it was only half-grins, small twitch of the corners. His smiles weren’t like Jack’s ones.

When Jack smiled it felt like everything around you looked better, like with that one honest smile the weight was lifted from your shoulders. There were wrinkles appearing in the corners of Jack’s eyes and light sparkling in them. There was warmness spreading through your chest. There was the feeling of want to smile back.

It definitely had to be magic.

Aster rarely smiled like that. Or maybe Hiccup never had seen him like that. But it was okay. Hiccup rarely smiled fully too.

(Or at least he thought so.)

They finished stacking back the CD cases and Hiccup turned around to spot a worker who was eyeing him suspiciously. Shit, he didn’t know someone beside Aster had seen him. But judging by the camera directed at him, his beautiful crash definitely had to be seen by the whole shop.

“Sorry…” Hiccup mumbled and quickly moved past the worker to the exit with Aster behind him.

Only when he was finally out of the shop, Hiccup managed to take a proper breath. He knew he should get used to embarrassing situations, as they happened to him almost on every step, but it was still stressful.

“What were you doing there?” Aster suddenly asked.

“Uhm… I was searching for parts for the project for this stupid Robotic Contest.” Hiccup huffed out.

He moved his backpack so he was able to take out the hat he had hidden there after entering the shop. The winter was still around, even when the weather forecast had told that it should be getting warmer soon. This soon was few weeks away apparently.

“Oh…” Aster answered. ”And did you find them?”

“No… I mean I found something, but I forgot what exactly I was supposed to buy, so decided against it.”

“Fair enough.” The boy nodded.

Hiccup put on his hat and then corrected his hair and glasses.

They stood there in silence in front of the shop for few moments. Hiccup had a vague feeling that the same worker, who had seen him crash into the shelf, was observing them warily from inside, but he didn’t want to turn back to check if that was the truth or not.

Hmm, maybe he should head home?

“Are you doing anything right now?”

“What?” Hiccup asked, turning around to the gray haired teen.

Aster glanced away.

“I’m going to grab some Chinese food. Do you want some too?”

Did Hiccup want food? He hadn’t eaten in like four or so hours, definitely not since lunch at school and, to be honest, they weren’t that edible.

Plus it was Aster! Aster was asking if Hiccup wanted to go out with him to eat something!

“S-sure.” Hiccup stuttered out.

“Then let’s go.”

* * *

Spending time with Aster was nice. They had fun.

They went to a Chinese Restaurant he, Astrid and Fishlegs had once visited when Fishlegs had been still living in Burgess. Aster ordered rice with some meat and Hiccup pasta with vegetables. They found a free place to sit and talked. About science, a little bit about school and even about their friends. A small talk about nothing in particular.

It was nice. His heart was beating in his chest – faster than usual. His cheeks were often getting red when Aster looked at him or said something funny.

It was very nice.

So why Hiccup felt like he was missing something? Like there was a place he rather be than here?

They talked, they had fun, they talked about their common hobby, but Hiccup still felt uncomfortable. Like there was this something holding him down, preventing him from fully opening up and just being himself.

Jack responded to his message during their meal. Hiccup’s eyes immediately jumped to his phone – his hand twitched to respond, but he decided against it. The quarrel with Astrid had taught him that he should focus more on people with whom he was spending time.

After that they both went out and Aster asked if Hiccup wanted a ride home. He agreed, because well, they were both going in the same direction, plus it was still freezing outside and Hiccup didn’t want to get sick, nu-huh.

So they moved to the parking lot, side by side, talking about the last Nobel Prize in Science. That was when Hiccup spotted Heather on the other side of the road.

And it looked like she did too, because she stopped walking and just stared at them.

Hiccup lifted his hand and waved at her, smiling. From far away he couldn’t exactly see her façade, but she also waved back.

Maybe Hiccup didn’t exactly like her brother per se, but he was okay with Heather. Plus she looked way happier nowadays.

After that Hiccup turned around to find Aster staring after Heather with almost… almost sad glint inside his eyes.

Hiccup blinked.

“Everything’s okay?” He asked.

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s okay.” Aster answered and they both returned to walking back to Aster’s car.

For the whole ride home they still talked, but it looked like there was something on Aster’s mind. And it kinda hurt Hiccup.

However it didn’t hurt as much as he thought it could. There was only a soft thumping sound somewhere inside his chest.

Hiccup didn’t understand what was happening with him. It felt like everything he felt today was toned down, like there was some veil thrown over his emotions.

Hiccup exited the car in front of his home.

Aster waved at him and then drove away. Only when his car disappeared behind the corner Hiccup took out his phone and smiled when he saw Jack’s name blinking on the screen.

Something inside of him fluttered, rippled, waved as he unblocked the screen and wrote a reply.

* * *

Jack sometimes had enough of his family. He loved them, he adored spending time with them, but if he has his cheek pinched one more time he is going to explode.

Gladly now he could run away for few minutes of silence filled with washing dishes. Huff, maybe he should become a stay-at-home wife. This way he will only have to cook, wash dishes and take care of a garden. And he was quite good at all of these things.

North’s brother and Tara’s sister came over for a small birthday party North threw for Jack. Earlier today they even had managed to call Jack’s mother who had wished him a happy birthday. She also had apologized for not being able to call on Valentine’s Day but she couldn’t get a clear connection with the rest of the world.

Jack didn’t mind. It was a thought that counted.

Now everyone had been sitting in the living room with a cup of coffee or tea and Jack had declared that he would go clean dishes. Chicha and Tiana immediately had asked to help him, but Jack had preferred to do it alone.

“Do you have some cake left?”

Or almost alone.

Jack turned around to look at Tipo, who was looking at him curiously from the doorway. His cousin had both his hands hidden behind his back.

“Hmm, I’ll finish cleaning this plate and I’ll check.”

After Jack put the plate away, he dried his hands and moved to the fridge. There were still three pieces of birthday cake left.

“Can you ask if someone else wants a piece too?” Jack peeked from behind the fridge’s door at the boy, who was already taking a plate out.

Tipo pouted, but then obediently returned to the living room. Jack shook his head and took out the rest of the cake from the fridge.

North and Emma had baked it during the very early morning. Emma rarely did anything in the kitchen – anything that wasn’t putting popcorn in a microwave. She often said that she wasn’t made to be a cook. But it looked like she had tried her best today. Her eyes which had observed Jack as he had taken a first bite had told him the truth. She was unsure of the results.

North had been there to help, but Jack was one hundred percent sure that the cake was the best, because Emma had done it. Which he had to point out.

After that Emma hadn’t talked with him for the whole evening. Someone couldn’t take a compliment.

“Papa and Chaca also want a piece!” Tipo stated, entering the kitchen loudly.

“Okay. Can you take out two more plates?”

After few weird maneuvers, which included Jack sticking his tongue out as he tried to put pieces on the plates, he was done. And the cake was done too apparently.

Tipo took two plates and brought them to the living room. He quickly returned to take the last piece – the biggest one, of course.

Jack expected him to return to the family, but the boy moved one chair, near the table, away and sat on it. He didn’t wait a second to dig in.

Jack returned to cleaning the dishes, humming softly under his nose. He didn’t mind the company.

After few minutes apparently the cake disappeared too and Tipo was putting the plate into the sink.

“Was it tasty?” Jack asked.

“Very!”

“Emma did it.” Jack could help, but boast about his little sibling.

Tipo’s eyes sparkled with shimmering stars as he stared with awe at Jack.

“Really?” He asked in that tone only kids could make. Full of wonder and childish magic.

“Yop.” Jack proudly said, puffing out his chest. Emma would roll her eyes at his behavior, but Jack couldn’t stop himself. He had a big brother syndrome. “You should congratulate her.”

The boy nodded vigorously, standing on his tiptoes.

Jack finished cleaning the dishes. It took him at least ten more minutes, but gladly soon every plate, bowl and utensil was clean. However he knew there were already things that had to be cleaned in the living room, but… later. Maybe he could ask someone else to do it now.

All this time Tipo was with him, looking curiously at Jack’s movements, like washing dishes was the most interesting thing in the entire universe. Even though Jack knew it couldn’t be truth. Knowing Chicha Tipo definitely had to do it few times in his life already.

“Do you need something else, little man?” Jack asked when he was done.

The boy shook his head.

“No, I just–“ But the rest of his sentence was cut short by a door bell.

A doorbell? On Saturday? At this hour? It was already near eight pm. Who could want to visit them now? Jack was sure North didn’t invite more people. Mailman? No, definitely not.

There was a commotion in the living room and then loud footsteps echoed in the corridor.

North passed kitchen and glanced at Jack. He smiled softly at Tipo.

“I’ll check it.”

There were few moments of silence when North fiddled with the lock. Then there was a sound of an opening door and…

“Eris? What are you doing here?”

Jack’s heart froze.

Usually he was immune to coldness. Bah, he even preferred it over to the warmness. But now he could feel the chilling tremors running through his spine.

It was like drowning. Drowning in a frozen lake, being pushed further and further under the surface.

What was Eris doing here?

“Hey, North. I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

It definitely was Jack’s mother. He couldn’t mistake this voice with anyone else.

Jack tried to breath. Tried to take one proper inhale into his clenched chest, but something was tugging, was grabbing him, was pushing him further and further down, under the surface of the cold water.

His waved his hands, trying to get back to the real world.

Jack was glad he hadn’t decided to be the one to open the door. Now Jack wasn’t sure what should he do – move to the door and greet his mother or run away and hide in his room.

Only now he noticed the whole house became quiet.

“Uhm, no, Eris, you’re not interrupting anything…” North said, a strained tone playing at the end of his sentence.

No, please, don’t come inside. Jack didn’t want that. This was his family evening. And even though Eris was also a part of his family… it was a totally different matter.

Tipo tugged on his sleeve.

“Jack?” He asked, the pure, childish innocence audible at the end tone of this one word. He looked curiously at Jack.

Jack smiled to him and patted his head. Or at least tried to do both.

“Hey, can you go to your Mom and Dad for a second?”

Tipo stared at him with those big, bright eyes for few more seconds, until he finally nodded.

“Okay.” And with that his short legs took him to the living room. Jack was never so glad the kitchen and the living room were connected, so Tipo didn’t have to go through the corridor.

Where North and Eris were still talking.

Jack took a deep breath, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart and swam to the surface. But it was too far and his arms slowly started to lose strength. Yet he knew he had to do it.

Even if he didn’t want to.

Jack slowly went out from the kitchen into the corridor. North was standing near the open door, letting all the freezing air from the outside world inside. But Jack felt like the chilliness roaming in his body wasn’t due to the wind now creeping inside their house.

Eris was standing in the doorway. Her gray coat was opened, but her gloved hands fiddled with a scarf hanging loosely on the neck. It almost looked like she was about to take it off and march inside. Jack hoped, prayed in his heart, that this wouldn’t be the case.

When she spotted him, the pissed expression turned into a softer one. Her painted lips twitched as Jack approached them.

“Jackie, hey, it’s good to see you.” She said delicately.

“Hey.” Jack answered, not really knowing what else he could add.

He stopped near North who looked at him with tiredness clearly visible in the wrinkles on his face.

“I wanted to see you one more time before going back to Greece, but it looks like I’m interrupting you all.” She stated.

Jack would lie, if he said that the enormous weight wasn’t taken away from his chest. The powerless limbs started to move, breaking the surface and trying to grasp onto something to get out from the dark, cold water.

“You’re already coming back?” North asked instead. One hand moved to his beard. “But you weren’t home even for a week. We didn’t even manage to meet and catch up.”

Eris turned his head to him, the trace of the previous anger suddenly gone.

“I’ll be for few more days in Burgess for some meetings, but then I’m going straight back to Greece.”

North nodded.

Jack clenched and unclenched his fist when his mother looked back at him. She grabbed something from the floor. How hadn’t Jack seen it by now was a miracle, because it was a pretty big box wrapped in a colorful, Christmas paper.

In February?

“I brought you your birthday present. Sorry I didn’t give you it on an actual day, but it didn’t arrive back then.” Eris said, stepping closer and showing the gift to him.

Jack blinked, actually taken aback.

It wasn’t like his mother never had sent him any presents, but it usually had been money and rarely something material.

“You didn’t have to…” Was the first thing that popped into Jack’s mind. It felt really weird to actually receive something from her. Something that wasn’t the alimony, that was. And a cold shoulder. And a reprimand.

“But I wanted to. We didn’t see each other in three years, so I wanted to give you something nice for a change.”

Jack glanced at her, but then looked down at the box. He reached for it and retrieved. Wow, it was… heavier than he expected it to be actually. He thought it would be as light as a feather, but something heavier definitely was inside.

“Thanks.” Jack murmured, putting the box down and smiling at his mother.

Eris looked at him, a ghost of content being visible on her lips too. The image of it was so unusual and weirdly kind that Jack couldn’t stop, but feel out of this place.

Then after few seconds the woman twitched.

“Oh, I have something for Emma too!”

At that Jack cringed internally. And he had a feeling Emma’s ears twitched after hearing her own name coming from Eris’ mouth.

The woman fiddles with the pockets of her coat until she took out a package of the size of a hand. Something rattled inside when she was passing it to North.

“I hope she likes it.” She said.

North took the package and stared at it for few seconds.

“I’m sure she’ll love it.”

Jack bit the inside of his cheek hard to not accidentally spill the facts which desperately wanted to get out from his mouth.

Eris then turned one more time to Jack.

“I don’t think we’ll see each other soon. Stay safe.” She said, reaching and patting his cheek softly. She didn’t even take off her gloves to do so. The leather made weird, slapping sounds on his skin.

“You too.” Jack answered, truthfully.

“Call me if you ever need something.” Eris then stated to North.

“And you message me when you’ll return to Greece.”

“I will.”

And with one last glance at Jack, Eris turned around and went down the stairs to the car that was standing on the driveway. Jack and North observed as the woman got inside the vehicle and then drove away, leaving only snow prints and two presents as a sign of her unusual visit.

After that North shut the door, sighing heavily.

Jack grabbed his present and with his father moved to the living room, where welcomed him the familiar voice:

“What did she want?”

Jack glanced at the man standing next to him who started to massage his beard, actually looking puzzled before replying. Jack hadn’t heard what they had been talking before he had gone there.

Why exactly was Eris here?

“I think she wanted to say goodbye?” North answered.

“And what is this?” Emma asked, pointing at Jack’s gift laying near his leg now.

“My birthday present slash late Christmas one?” He shrugged.

“That reminds me…” North next to him murmured and fumbled with the pockets of his trousers. After few seconds he took out a small, wrapped package and passed it to Emma. “It’s for you from Eris.”

The girl blinked and… nothing happened. She just kneeled on the couch with arms resting on the back of it – just as she was before the gift was mentioned.

Chicha and Tiana looked at each other with worry creasing on their foreheads. Pacha glanced nervously at his brother. And North just stood there, still with his hand reaching to his daughter.

For a brief moment Jack thought that Emma would grab the present and threw it out of the window. It was so Emma that he simply wouldn’t be even surprised if that happened in real life.

But it didn’t.

The girl tentatively reached and grabbed the package from North’s hand, eyeing it suspiciously like it could suddenly explode. After that she moved it near her eyes.

“What is it?” She asked.

“Why won’t you unwrap it and find out?” Jack proposed.

Emma glanced at him and huffed, but then sat normally on the couch. She was quickly crowded by Tipo and Chaca who peeked curiously at the gift laying now on her lap.

Jack put his own present under the wall and walked to Emma, imitating her posture from few seconds ago and leaning on the back of the couch and looking above her shoulder.

Her hands moved slowly. She didn’t try to tear the paper like any giddy child would. She moved methodically, ungluing the adhesive tape, so it wouldn’t leave any marks on the paper. Why? Did she plan to wrap it back up?

After a minute or so the paper was discarded and on Emma’s lap laid a crimson box. Hesitantly she opened it.

Inside of it, on a small silk pillow, laid a thin silver necklace with a four-leaf clover pendant. The small green sparklers were embedded in the metal, glimmering delicately when Emma took out the present from the box.

She looked at it suspiciously, bringing it closer to her eyes.

“Okay?” She finally said after few seconds of inspecting the gift. “What I’m supposed to do with it?”

“Wear around your neck?” North proposed. Jack only now noticed that he stood next to him.

“Hell no.” Emma murmured, returning her gaze to the gift. “Can I sell it in a pawnshop?”

“That wouldn’t be nice.” Chicha said, smiling reassuringly to her.

Emma hmphed loudly under her nose, but brought the pendant closer once again, staring at it curiously.

Something inside of Jack could tell that she liked it. And the fact that she thought the present was neat was making everything way worse for her. Because it was a gift from Eris of all people.

“What did you get Jack?” Emma asked instead, not looking up, but still staring at the silver necklace.

“I don’t know, I didn’t open it yet.”

“Then why won’t you do it now?”

“Ehh…” Jack hummed. “Not really up to do it now. Maybe later.”

Tipo and Chaca moaned loudly, saddened by the information. They probably wanted to see what was inside the box. Jack was kinda curious too, but not as much as he usually was about opening presents.

So yeah, this one could wait till the evening when he will be alone in his room.

Emma looked at him, but then turned around. She stared at the necklace for few more minutes, until she put it in the box and closed it.

Hmm, weird.

* * *

“Open it!”

“Emma, wait…”

“Open it, open it, open it, open it, open it, open it!”

Jack sighed as Emma literally ran around the box, now placed inside his room. Well, she was still a kid after all, but why was North also here with him!?

“Why won’t you do it?” Jack asked instead, raising his eyebrow.

“Ugh, no, I’m gonna get more Eris’ germs on me.” Emma frowned, in the middle of making a n-th lap around the box.

“But you opened your present…” North said, smiling at his daughter.

“And I had to wash my hands at least seven times to get rid of the germs!” Emma countered back.

So this was what Emma was doing so long in the bathroom.

The faster they would do it, the faster this all fuss could be over.

Jack kneeled on the floor, grabbed his present and started to unwrap it. He wasn’t methodical like Emma, but he also wasn’t a furious animal, ripping through the paper with his bare nails. He was moving slowly, but only because he wanted to rile curious Emma who was peeking at it from above Jack’s shoulder now.

Then after few moments the gift was unpacked. It was a PlayStation 4.

And Jack… Jack kinda wanted to throw up seeing it.

Because the first thing that popped into his head was the fact that Eris wanted to buy a place in Jack’s life with expensive gifts. Like she thought that Jack was as easy as that – buy him something and everything suddenly would be fine.

“Oh…” Jack managed to say through his closing throat.

“Wow.” Emma behind him whispered. “She definitely paid… a lot.”

Which made everything actually way worse.

Because, to be honest, Jack didn’t want that. No, that was wrong. He wanted a new console, but he didn’t want it as a present from Eris of all people.

“That is… nice.” North said, slowly, stepping closer and sitting on the ground.

He helped Jack get rid of the last bits and pieces of paper to put the original box on the ground between them.

Jack still didn’t know what to say, so he decided on biting his lip, looking at the gift.

North started to collect the ripped papers around them to crumple them in a ball.

“You have an envelope here too, Jack.” He said, waving a white something in front of his face.

“You can open it.” Jack said, furrowing his eyebrows and thinking what should he do with such expensive gift that made him feel guilty.

He heard North ripping open the paper and taking something colorful out of it. He opened the card and then started to read it.

Jack didn’t want this present. Heck, couldn’t Eris buy him something more normal? Like a sweater? A book? Even a bike would be better! Definitely not this. What was he supposed to do with it now? Wrap it back and hide under his bed? That sounded like wasted opportunities. However he wasn’t up to unpacking it and hooking it up with a monitor. He didn’t want to look at it and remember who had bought it whenever he booted up a game!

What to do, what to do –

Only after few seconds he understood that the room became weirdly still.

Jack lifted his head at North who was staring back at him. Yet somehow different. Not bad different, just… different. Neutral different? Yeah, maybe like that.

“What’s up?” Jack asked.

North moved the card to him.

“I think you should read it.”

The white haired teen blinked, but took the birthday card from his father.

It was pretty simple. A colorful, glittery card with bears at front and simple printed wishes inside. Nothing more, nothing less. Well at least Jack thought so at first, until he moved his eyes down, over Eris’ sign at the very bottom of the card.

_PS: I hope you and Hiccup will be happy together._

Oh, so that was why the room suddenly became silent. Fuck his life.

Jack sighed, long and loud. Emma glanced at him curiously, then looked at their father. She stared back at Jack and raised her eyebrow. Well, it would be better if she also knew what they would be talking about in just few seconds, so he passed her the card.

Her mouth formed a small ‘o’ when she clearly found the additional comment at the very bottom.

Jack took another deep breath. If he had more time, maybe he would plan this whole conversation in his head (just Like Hiccup oh so often did), but he didn’t have that. So yeah, improvisation it was.

“North, okay before you start thinking anything–“

“No, no, Jack it’s okay. I’m okay with it. You don’t have to explain it to me. I’m glad you are together with Hiccup–“

“Ugh, that is the case. We are not together!” Jack whined, combing his hand through his white locks and looking at his father.

North blinked.

“You aren’t?” He asked.

“No!” Jack said. “I mean, yes, we aren’t together. Eris just…” He made a circle with his palm. “… got the wrong impression. Really. Me and Hiccup are not together.” Damn, but Jack wished it was the case. “Besides, if we were, do you think I wouldn’t tell you? I definitely wouldn’t let Eris inform you about it.” Jack added, smiling at his dad.

The last one definitely calmed North. His beard twitched and lips formed a kind smile.

“Okay, I believe you.” He stated. “But honestly, if you are or will be just tell me. I need to have the talk with you about the birds and the bees… Or maybe only about the bees?”

“Ugh, dad, no!” Jack whined, facepalming himself. No, no, no, he definitely didn’t want that. That would be totally embarrassing. That was embarrassing even now!

“Why not? You are of age to–“

“Dad, please, no.” Emma interrupted, groaning loudly at the end and hiding her face in both her hands. “I don’t want to listen to it yet. I’m too young to be corrupted by the outside world.”

Even from Jack’s place he could see her face was as red as a tomato.

But gladly, Emma’s outburst killed North’s urges to explain how sex worked. Coming to this, maybe he should let his father try to explain it. Jack was simply curious how it would go.

Or maybe not.

“The internet gladly taught me enough.” Jack quickly complied, hoping that it would make North drop the topic.

“But you know, there is nothing better than some son–to–father talk about–“

“I’m not listening!” Emma shouted, covering her ears and standing up. She quickly stomped away from Jack’s room, yelling loudly ‘la la la, not hearing you’ until she hid in her room, closing the door with too much force.

One day some door will break because of Emma.

North clasped both his hands together, turned to Jack and opened his mouth, but Jack was quicker.

“No, dad, I don’t need this talk and no, me and Hiccup are not together.”

The man nodded and changed his position on the floor, so he was now leaning on the bed together with Jack.

“Okay, I believe you. But if you ever change your mind, remember that you can always come to me.”

“And have the talk?”

“I actually didn’t mean that, but if you really want…” North trailed the last words, smiling hesitantly to him.

Jack chuckled under his nose and reached for the card Emma had dropped on the floor when she hid her face. He opened it and stared at the words written there, in neat, elegant, cursive.

Jack always liked Eris’ writing style. Back when he had been a kid, he had tried to imitate it. But his own letters never had been so elegant – they had been crooked and askew, plus his hand had been aching after trying for write neatly for too long. So he had stopped imitating it. Yet he never had stopped liking it.

“So what are you going to do with this present?” North asked.

Jack shrugged in response, closing the card.

“I’m… not sure. I don’t actually want it. I mean I want it, but like… not from her? Does this makes sense to you?”

“I get more over what you want to say.” The man nodded. “So are you going to hide it?”

“It would seem like a wasted gift, so I don’t know. Maybe I’ll try selling it to someone who I know. This way I’ll know where it is.”

“Sounds like the best idea to do here.”

“Maybe she won’t be asking about it.” Jack said, moving and grabbing the box. He turned around and pushed the present under his bed. He still wasn’t one hundred percent sure about this idea, but it was the best one he had.

He definitely need to sleep with it and then decide.

“Let’s hope not.” North added. Then after few seconds he opened his mouth. “But at least she tried.”

Jack frowned.

“Doesn’t it look to you like she wants to buy me? I mean, fancy restaurants and expensive gifts? That sounds a little bit…” Like a cheap tactic.

North hummed.

“Maybe.” He finally said. “Or maybe you’re looking at it from a wrong angle. Maybe she is really trying to reconnect with you. You know her, she likes fancy things, so I doubt she could ever take you to KFC–“

“But they are finger lickin’ good!*” Jack quickly retorted.

“True, but you get the point.” North smiled at that. “And with this BZ5–“

“PS4, dad…”

“You know I’m not good with new technologies, Jack. But you can’t say she didn’t hit a jackpot with this one.”

Jack was opening his mouth to add something, but closed it when he found out that North had a point. If maybe he received this gift from anyone else, like literally anyone, he would be overjoyed about it. Because come on! It was PS4! Jack’s old PS3 was good, but well…

“Maybe you’re right.” He finally murmured, scratching his cheek. “But it doesn’t mean I want to keep it.”

“I understand, Jack. I only ask you to think about it a little more.”

“I’ll try.”

North graced him with another tired, yet proud and full of optimism smile as he stood up from the floor, groaning loudly when his bones cracked painfully.

“Okay, I’m off to bed. Don’t stay too late!”

“Yeah…”

“Jack!”

* * *

“Hey, do you know anyone who would want a PS4?”

Hiccup moved the phone away from his ear and glanced at the screen. Yes, indeed it was Jack who had called him with quite unusual question, but well…

“I don’t… know?” Hiccup answered truthfully, bringing the device closer to himself. “Why are you asking?”

“Oh, Eris gave one to me as my birthday slash Christmas present.” Jack said it like it was the most normal thing that could happen in real life.

Hiccup always thought that kind of things happened on internet or in weird fanfictions. Well, not anymore.

“My dad gave me socks for Christmas and you got a PS4?” Hiccup complained, grinning under his nose. He opened the drawer and took out earphones to plug them in. Holding a phone was too tiring.

“My dad gave me new spatula, so yeah, no difference here.” Jack quickly added. There was a sound of pushed keys. Was Jack also on the computer? Why hadn’t he sent him a message on Skype then?

“Okay, let’s finish this competition who received the most normal present and return to the main topic.” Hiccup put the phone down. Yeah, he had both his hands free to do whatever he wanted. And no, not to jack off. “So you got a PS4 from Eris and you want to?”

“Get rid of it sounds bad, so no. I just want to… I don’t know, give it to someone?”

“Why not use it?” Hiccup asked as he moved the mouse to bring his laptop back to life. Oh, Fishlegs messaged him.

“I don’t want to.” Jack said, the happy tone deflating a little. Uh-oh.

Hiccup could kinda understand it. Eris hadn’t seen Jack in three years, and judging by Jack’s behavior she hadn’t been that good mother before that. And now she was smothering him with expensive gifts? No wonder he didn’t really want that.

“Okay…” Hiccup hummed. “How about Aster or Tooth? Don’t they want that?”

“Tooth only plays on PC and Aster isn’t that great in gaming actually. Plus he said that he has to learn and not waste time on killing zombies, pff.” Jack quickly answered. “Loser.” He added more quietly.

Hiccup snorted at that and wrote a quick reply to Fishlegs. The boy was whining to him that Astrid wasn’t online, so he didn’t have anyone with whom he could play. He shouldn’t look at Hiccup – he wasn’t the best player in town.

“Some of your other friends? You have quite a big amount of them?” Hiccup proposed, indicating the big number of friends Jack had on Facebook… and Twitter… and Instagram and all other sites and in real life.

“Ugh… I mean sure I can ask Jim? Or maybe Sinbad… or even Violet, but I don’t know? I want to give it to someone who I can trust so I’ll know what is happening with it.”

“Understandable.” Hiccup nodded and then exited the skype to roam a little bit around the internet. Oh, maybe Acapellascience* added something…

“You don’t want it, do you?”

“Nope. I wouldn’t use it anyway.” Hiccup quickly answered. Although something warm tickled his lungs when Jack had proposed this idea. It was nice to know that Jack had considered him in his plan to give the console away.

“Damn.”

“Maybe… Astrid?”

“I already asked her.” Jack answered immediately.

Wait, what? Jack didn’t even bat an eye while answering. That was… that was unpredictable and unusual.

“Okay…”

“What? She was on Facebook and you told me she likes playing games!” Jack quickly explained.

Kinda suspicious, but Hiccup decided to leave it be.

“Concluding from the fact that you called me I guess she didn’t want to take it either?”

“No… she said she was saving to buy it for a long time and she wasn’t far away from buying it so… no.”

“Oh yeah, she was talking about buying it…”

“You really don’t listen to your friends, do you, Hic?”

“Hey, they sometimes jump into this overdrive about games where I can’t understand a single word, so I think it’s natural for me to turn on my standby mode when they do that. This is how I stay sane.” Hiccup murmured.

“Like you and your science talk is better.” Oh, Hiccup could almost see Jack smirking on the other side.

“That’s why I don’t mind when someone turns off when I talk, because I totally do the same.”

“Understandable.” Jack continued, but then huffed loudly. “So you don’t know anyone else who might take care of my present?”

“You know people may have hard time trying to understand that you want to give it to them without them paying you.” Hiccup said.

He would have hard time not feeling guilty, if he took Jack’s console. Taking something cheap was one thing, but expensive… huh boy. What if he accidentally destroyed it? Knowing his luck it was pretty possible. But gladly he wasn’t interested in gaming.

“Yeah, I guess I see your point.” Jack agreed reluctantly, after few seconds, like he was mulling the idea over in his head.

“Wouldn’t you feel bad, if you received something expensive from someone?”

“I would totally do.”

“Exactly.”

After that there was silence and they both thought about people they could count in. But it was hard. Hiccup didn’t have that many friends. Knowing Tuff and Ruff they would destroy it the second they would get their hands on it. Snotlout was weirdly a big Wii fan, so yeah, maybe he would take the PS4, but maybe not. Besides all three of them had to work, so they didn’t have that much time.

So who else could take it? Someone who knew Jack…

Hiccup glanced down. Oh, Fishlegs replied to him.

Wait, maybe Fishlegs? They didn’t know each other per se, so that was a disadvantage, but hey! Fishlegs took care of all his games and consoles, so maybe? It definitely was worth a try?

Hiccup cleared his throat.

“Hey, are you still there?” He asked, just to be sure. Jack didn’t utter a word in around four minutes.

However the white haired teen hummed from the other side.

“How about Fishlegs? I know you don’t actually know each other that well, but trust me, he is trustworthy. Astrid can confirm that. And he really takes care of every game he has! He even repaired an old Atari he had bought on the internet!”

“Oh. That’s cool actually…” Jack said and it looked, or sounded like he stood up or sat up more straight, judging by his chair squeaking loudly. “I’m not sure I will decide on him, but I guess I can talk with him about it.”

“Do you want his number or Skype nick?” Hiccup asked.

“Yeah… yeah, you can send both.”

“Okay, I’ll do it after we’ll hang up.”

“Ugh, are you already tired of me?” Jack, on the other side, whined.

Hiccup snorted under his nose. Seriously.

“I’ve been talking with you for at least fifteen or so minutes now. If I was, I would already finish the call.” He stated and somehow, weirdly, he couldn’t stop the smile from forming on his lips, tugging forcefully on the corners.

“Oh, that means you like me.” Jack sang from the other side.

“I tolerate you.”

“The same thing.”

Maybe Jack was right. But damn, Hiccup wouldn’t admit it out loud.

“Oh, you agree with me, see?”

“Fuck you, Jack.”

“It’s an invitation?”

“No!”

Jack chuckled.

Now Hiccup was tired. But weirdly pleased? Yeah. Strange combination.

He didn’t even noticed they were talking for twenty minutes.

“But Hic–“ Then there was a commotion on the other side, some voices, disturbed, reached Hiccup’s ears and Jack answered. “Sorry, I have to go.”

“No problem. Hope I helped?”

“You did. Thanks. See you, love you!”

What, what, what, what?

But before Hiccup’s mind could fully process the meaning of these words, or judge whether they were a mistake or not, Jack was already speaking, fast, urgently and hesitantly:

“Oh shit, I mean, sorry. I didn’t– I mean, I– I have been talking with mom earlier and you know, old habits die hard!” A dry chuckle escaped Jack’s lips, followed by another shout for Jack on the other side, this time even Hiccup heard it clearly – over his suddenly loud thumping heart. ”Sorry and thanks you one more time!”

“No problem, bye.” Hiccup answered and then the call was finished.

Hiccup stared for few more seconds at the screen of his computer. Slowly, he took out the earphones from his ears and put them aside.

Damn, that was kinda embarrassing. Maybe not kinda even. He knew these kind of mistakes happen. Heck, he even had done it two or three times in his life, so he shouldn’t think so hard about it.

So why couldn’t he stop smiling?

 

 

**Author's note:**

Answers =D:

Toffyy – Hohohoh maybe maybe something in Hiccup is changing (hopefully hahaha) xD. And I’m proud that he finally found the courage to yell! =D

Live_fishbowl – Omg thank youuuu ;_____;! Hope you liked this one too =D!

McCorsdog – Hiccup, hon, listen, you like him, admit it!!! >: D! Awww don’t cry, unless those are tears of joy D:!

Derpy_Dorky – Awww I’m so glaaaaad =DDD! Well, last few months were kinda harsh, but I hope it will be better in the future. I hope that you are having an amazing day and time =DD!

blitz_lili - <stare at my Author’s note, where I still whine…> Shit xD… Yeah, I wanted Eris to kinda be bad, but not really that bad, like her behavior would leave a bad aftertaste =D. Thank you =D!

Frost.addiction – I hope you liked iiiiitt =D!

Blirf – Yeah, I’m not that good with stress either D:!

FandomSupporter15 – I already answered you… but still thank youuuuu!!! =D

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huff puff! Finally done! I’m not entirely happy with the plot about Jack’s present from Eris, but I wanted to develop her character a lil bit. Great thanks to Toffyy who reminded me about uploading this (you're a star!) <3 <3 <3!
> 
> Science facts:  
> *Polymerization in CCl4 – the polymers’ chains in polymerization in this solvent are short due to high reactivity of CCl4.   
> *Potassium ferricyanide – it’s a bright red chemical compound.  
> *Manganese(II) chloride tetrahydrate – it’s a pink chemical compound. The color is definitely not as strong as the color of the salt above.  
> *HIPS – High Impact Polystyrene – it is a tough, rigid plastic material with high impact strength. Used widely for toys, packaging, signs, kicking plates, display and point of sale – and I think also for CD cases =D.
> 
> Other nerdy facts:  
> *Bag of holding – it’s a fictional magical item in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, capable of containing objects larger than its own size.  
> *Mountain Dew Red – reference to Be More Chill – by drinking Mountain Dew Red the character could get rid of the Squip inside their head, who was talking with them.  
> *They are finger lickin’ good – Sorry, another reference to Stranger Things (season 2). I couldn’t help myself haha xD  
> *Acapellascience – A channel on Youtube filled with science songs. I know that this story is happening around 2014 now, but I couldn’t stop myself from mentioning it in. Listen to it! Do it <3!
> 
> See you next time <3! And Happy Easter!


	14. Wien's displacement law

**Wien's displacement law** – the black body radiation curve for different temperatures peaks at a wavelength inversely proportional to the temperature. Hotter objects emit most of their radiation at shorter wavelengths, hence they will appear to be bluer. Cooler objects emit most of their radiation at longer wavelengths, hence they will appear to be redder.

 

Jack sighed as he made a turn and drove into a parking lot in front of the mechanic. Their car had started to make strange noises from the back right wheel yesterday, so North had asked Jack to take it to the mechanic and have it checked. Hopefully it wasn’t anything majorly big and it could be repaired in few hours.

Jack drove forward and parked near the main building. He’ll have to drive inside to have it checked, but for now he had to see if they could take care of it.

He exited the car and locked it. He moved slowly to the familiar metal door which would allow him to walk into the main hall. He pushed it and stepped inside.

Two of three repair stations were occupied. On the second one a car was lifted up and two men and one woman were looking at the bottom part of it, talking with each other about something.

Jack stepped closer and cleared his throat loudly.

One man under the car twitched and stood up.

“Hello, mister Crood.” Jack said, smiling after he recognized the chief of this place.

The man threw a wrench on the floor and clasped his gloved, dirty hands together. Actually, the gloves weren’t the only thing dirty here, as the man’s whole suit was marked with brown, black and gray stains. Jack preferred it that way. It showed that people who worked here really did that. Plus they were good at it.

North always came here to repair their car.

“Oh Jack, hey. North called us yesterday to tell you’ll be coming.” The man said and then stepped away from the car. “Think you can drive it to the third station?” He asked, scratching his beard and unconsciously smearing oil all over his chin.

“Sure can do, sir.” Jack said, glad that he didn’t have to go back home emptyhanded.

Mister Crood opened the giant door when Jack was outside and he drove slowly onto the rails. When he had first tried to do so, he had missed it greatly, but now he had learned how to do it.

Yet he still was stressed a little bit.

Jack exited the car and mister Crood stepped to him.

“So what is wrong?” He asked.

“There is weird sound coming from the back right wheel. Like something is rubbing against something else?” Jack said.

The man nodded and then moved to the back of the car. He kneeled and brushed something on the ground.

“Yeah, definitely something is grinding here. You even left a trail after yourself.” The man stated and then stood up. “Eep, come here, pick this old fella up!” He shouted, tilting his head to the duo still doing something under the second car.

Quickly after that the female emerged from under the vehicle with an ocean of wild, fiery hair sticking in many directions. She smiled at Jack, waved and then moved to lift the car.

Her father hummed approvingly and then turned to Jack.

“Are you in a hurry?” He asked.

“Not really.”

“Good. You can make yourself coffee and wait.” Mister Crood stated.

Jack nodded in response and then moved away. He walked to the metal table standing in the further part of the hall, far away from the rest of machinery. On it stood an electric kettle, few plates – one had an unfinished sandwich on it – and two cups, both filled with coffee.

Jack grabbed a cup from a drier which stood on a small white fridge, just next to a sink. When he had been here for the first time he had been way too shy to make himself something to drink. Even now he didn’t feel too comfortable, but well… He didn’t know how long it could take, so he decided to accept the offer.

He turned on the kettle, poured some instant coffee in the cup and waited. He busied himself with observing the Crood family getting rid of his back wheel. Well, sayonara to that, he guessed.

Jack made the coffee, put one small cup of cream inside and then sat down. He took out his phone to check if he had any new messages.

He had – five in total. But there were few which he anticipated more than the others. He was a man in love, who could blame it?

Well, thinking it freely was definitely way better than trying to delude yourself in thinking otherwise. Besides now he could send some weird, _in love_ , cheesy memes to Astrid, who had been groaning at him lately when they had been talking. No wonder actually.

Jack answered Hiccup and then moved to another message. From Fishlegs.

At first he hadn’t been really that up for Hiccup’s proposition. He had seen Fishlegs few times around the school and had talked a little bit with him during the New Year’s Eve. Nothing more, nothing less. So it was normal for him to have his suspicions.

So he had decided to talk a little bit with the teen, check the grounds before he would determine his final decision.

Fishlegs actually had turned out to be a cool guy. Jack had asked him about few games he had played and he had found out that they had quite many similar titles in their libraries.

Astrid also had vouched for him. Aster, surprisingly, had done too.

So now Jack was almost one hundred percent sure he had picked the winner in the small lottery.

Jack occupied his time by messaging people while he drank the coffee. He heard workers talking with each other as they tried to repair what was wrong with Overland’s car. It took them at least half an hour before Mister Crood approached him, brushing away the sweat from his forehead.

“Jack, unfortunately I don’t think we can repair it today.”

“What happened?”

“The suspension in the back wheel broke down. I need to buy some parts tomorrow to repair it.”

Oh…

“Well, okay.” Jack said, smiling at the man. He wasn’t totally happy, but he knew the man tried. Plus it wasn’t like it was unrepairable, it just needed some more time. “No worries.”

“Do you need a lift home? I can asked Guy to take you.” The man said, maybe even spat the name like it was an acid on his tongue.

A teen, maybe three years older than Jack emerged from under the second car. He waved his hand at Jack and he did it back.

“Don’t worry, Mister Crood. I can walk home. I don’t have anything better to do, plus it isn’t that cold outside.” He turned to the taller man.

“Are you sure?” The man asked, raising his eyebrow. He passed Jack and grabbed one half empty cup, only to drink the rest of the coffee from it in one big gulp. “It isn’t a problem.”

Jack grabbed his jacket and put it on.

“Nah, really, I don’t mind.” He said, covering his body with a warm layer of clothes. “Should I pay you?” North had given him some money.

The man waved his hand.

“No, payment after work is done.” Then the man scratched his beard in thoughts. “I’ll call North when the car will be done. Shouldn’t take more than two or three days.”

Jack thanked the man, said his goodbyes to him, the girl and guy, who still was under the second car, and then went out.

Well, North will have to use a bus once again.

* * *

 

Hiccup will probably never really understand why he had done _that_ in a million years. It was pretty unlike him to start a random topic with Dagur. Well, maybe not random, but definitely off-topic? Yes, no, maybe? Okay, never mind.

He simply didn’t know why he started to talk at all. Hiccup was fine with the stillness that appeared between him and Dagur whenever they worked during their tutoring sessions. It was like vacuum, with no movement inside of it. It was unavoidable. But earlier he had never really thought about trying to break through it. And even now he didn’t know why he even started to do it.

But the question was out from his lips, before he could fully think it through.

“How is Heather?”

Dagur… Dagur definitely was taken aback by the question.

They were sitting in the library once again. It had started to happen a lot nowadays. Today Professor Robinson had some tutoring session for some students and they had decided on library once again. At this point they will probably move the sessions here.

It wasn’t the safest space, but Hiccup didn’t feel scared. Heh, he hadn’t felt that terrified since this weird conversation he had had with Dagur.

That time he had seen something utterly… human in the teen. He really had noticed it way later, when he had been replaying the scene over and over in his head. Why had he done that? He hadn’t known. But something in Dagur’s behavior had been off, unnatural, and Hiccup hadn’t been able to pinpoint it at first. Only he had done it later.

Maybe it was this realization that had made him ask this question.

The teen lifted his face from his phone as he waited for Hiccup to correct something in his project. His eyes were big, and there was a crease on his forehead which smoothened a little after a second.

“Fine… I think…” He said, slowly, unsurely. There was another few seconds of emptiness around them, when they could hear the librarian coughing behind the wall. “Why do you ask?”

“Uhm, I don’t know. Once I saw her quite…” Hiccup looked up at the ceiling, but he didn’t find an idea for a good word to use here. “…sad.”

“Oh…” Dagur mumbled, returning his gaze to his phone, but hesitantly, like he wasn’t sure where he should look there at all.

“But last week when I saw her in the city, she looked better.” Hiccup quickly continued.

This topic was awkward. Even he could almost smell it, sense it. Awkward as doing some lab experiment alone for the very first time. But neither he nor Dagur were good in social interactions, especially with each other. Maybe he should just shut up and live through the silence till the tutoring session would be over.

The seconds ticked, slowly, but steadily, undisturbed by the events happening around the whole world. The time didn’t care about anything – how people felt, whether they wanted it to stop or prolong some moment – it listened to no one.

It was almost terrifying.

“I think… she smiles more nowadays, if you’re asking about that.” Dagur finally mumbled, barely partying his lips to let the words out.

Maybe Hiccup was asking about that? He was surprised he got any answer in the end.

“I’m glad then.” Hiccup said, smiling to himself.

Maybe he didn’t know Heather that much, mostly heard about her from Jack and other people, but honestly she never had been unkind to him.

“Me too.” Dagur added, after a while.

Hiccup looked up. Dagur wasn’t staring at him, but at the screen of his phone which was illuminating his face. But damn, he could swear there was a ghost – an invisible force - of a pleased smile tugging – drawing it into its field – at the corners of his mouth.

“That’s good.” Hiccup added and that was the end of this topic.

* * *

 

“That’s great.” Hiccup murmured to his laptop as he wrote another equation in his notebook.

He maybe liked learning, but doing homework was definitely the worst. They should totally ban it. It would be better for everyone, plus he would have more time for himself. If he could he would throw all his homework (and maybe even the inventor of it too) into a black hole.

“Yeah, I can’t believe this is really happening!” Fishlegs almost shouted excitedly. His voice came out in a rhythmic tempo of screeches. Damn, Hiccup’s speakers weren’t that good at withstanding such kind of frequencies.

Hiccup still smiled under his nose. He was happy for Fishlegs. Jack apparently had asked him yesterday if he was up to take care of his PS4. And Fishlegs, of course, almost immediately agreed. Hiccup wasn’t so surprised actually. Fishlegs was one of those people who did something and thought later about the consequences. A trait that often had made them mess up an experiment during the labs.

“It is.” Hiccup agreed. He grabbed his calculator and put few numbers in there to get a result. Okay, he only had to do like two more subsections and he would be free to do whatever he wanted today.

“I think I may die.”

“If you die, you won’t get to play.”

“Oh, fair point.” Fishlegs mused, nodding.

They were video chatting. It didn’t happen too often with them, but from time to time, usually when one of them missed seeing the other’s one face.

“But, honestly, and tell me the truth, there are no catches, right?”

Now Fishlegs was thinking about it? Kinda too late, buddy.

“From what I know, no.” Hiccup added, not really looking up. Oh shit, he made a mistake. Well, he had to calculate the whole equation again. Great.

“Come on, you can tell me.”

“If I knew there were some, I would tell you. Besides it isn’t like he is giving it to you for free.”

From what Hiccup knew – or from what Fishlegs and Jack had both told him, they were supposed to exchange PS4 for some Nintendo? Or maybe some games? Hiccup wasn’t sure, he hadn’t been listening too intently actually.

He was just happy both sides were content with the results of their deal.

“Oh, yeah, but still…”

Hiccup shook his head with a fond smile. Then he heard a sound coming from the corridor, like someone or something was retching. Definitely not a nice sound.

“Fish, wait a second.” Hiccup said as he stood up from his chair.

He turned off the microphone and then moved to the door. He opened it and turned on the light in the corridor.

Oh, it was Toothless.

“Hey, what’s up, buddy?” Hiccup asked, moving to the cat who was definitely vomiting on the floor. “Did you have some cat hair in your throat?”

It definitely looked like it could be the case here. The only problem was that it had happened for the third time today. One was normal, sometimes even two, but three times?

Hiccup started to worry. Maybe he should go to a vet? Just to be sure.

Hiccup cleaned the floor and then slowly picked Toothless up. Weirdly, he didn’t even try to get out and run away. Something definitely was wrong with his buddy and he needed to find out what.

* * *

 

Jack whistled as he slowly walked through the city.

Mister Crood had called them earlier to say that the car had been fixed and they could come pick it up. And because North still had to return home from his work, Jack was picked to be the one to go on this mighty journey.

With music blasting in his ears it wasn’t really that bad. His muscles hurt a little due to the fact they had started their football trainings. Gladly the volleyball team hadn’t had practices in the morning, so they could do it in the Gym and not outside. Maybe it was March, so the spring should be around the corner, but the snow was still there.

Time was moving forward and Jack still didn’t start learning for the final exams. Shit.

He knew he maybe should start reviewing old classes or something like that, but he couldn’t find motivation in himself to do so. Aster wanted to go to a University. Tooth too. Most of Jack’s friends already knew what they wanted to do after High School… But Jack… Jack wasn’t sure.

He wasn’t particularly good in anything. Maybe he was more or less okay at video games and football, but he didn’t want to focus his future on one of those things. But except for that, he had unfortunately nothing. He wasn’t that interested in physics or biology like Aster or Tooth. He wasn’t good in geography like Sinbad. He didn’t like astronomy like Jim. He was… mediocre at those at best.

There wasn’t anything he particularly wanted to do. He just wanted to have a normal, happy life and he would be content with it.

Apparently it wasn’t so easy to get.

He could always go into business and economy… just like North had done, but somehow he couldn’t imagine himself sitting for the whole day behind a desk and putting numbers into a computer. That was so… inactive.

Plus the problem with Aster was still on his mind. Yet nowadays it had felt like… like Aster had started to open a little bit? Or maybe that was only Jack’s imagination, but, damn, he hoped that wasn’t the case. He had nowadays too many things to worry about, so if only one thing could be solved then he would be glad.

Jack walked into the parking lot in front of the mechanic and immediately moved to the familiar metal door. He opened them and then stepped inside.

Mister Crood was this time under the car on the first station. Or at least Jack supposed it was him, judging by the legs sticking out from beneath the vehicle and grumpy hums resembling music coming from under it.

“Hello?” Jack hesitantly started.

The man under the car twitched and then slowly moved out. It indeed was Mister Crood, although it was hard to say so at first, because his whole face was dark from soot, dirt and different types of oil.

“Oh Jack, good to see you.” The man said and then stood up. Jack could literally hear the male’s bones creaking. Damn, it had to hurt. “The car is ready to go.”

“That’s great.”

“I actually asked my new recruit to take care of it. I hope you don’t mind?”

New recruit? Did he mean that one guy who had been here two days ago?

Jack looked around, but it didn’t look like besides Mister Crood anyone was here.

“I don’t mind.” Jack said. If the work was done, then that was okay with him.

Mister Crood nodded.

Maybe Jack should actually mind, because the next word the man shouted actually put him into a dazed mode.

“Dagur, Overland’s here to pick up the car!”

At first Jack thought that maybe he misheard the man. But then the teen with his grumpy frown and exhausted eyes walked out from the door directing them to a storeroom.

Their gazes crossed and Jack had a feeling that the frown on the male’s face deepened. Uh-oh.

Dagur approached them and passed Mister Crood a cloth which was hanging on his shoulder.

“Dagur this is…”

“We know each other, Mister Crood.” Jack quickly interrupted the man politely, smiling to him at the end.

“Oh, that’s good.” The older man said and then turned to Dagur. “Will you explain him everything? I need to call the owner of this car.” He patted the car on station one. ”The repair will take a lot more time.” At that Dagur only nodded, so the man continued. “I don’t know what that guy did, but he definitely wasn’t taking care of his car.”

“I can imagine.” Dagur said to Mister Crood and then looked back at Jack.

Oh, his mouth was dry.

Dagur showed with his head that Jack should follow him as they moved to the third station. Jack’s car was still lifted up, but the tire was gladly secured in its rightful place.

Jack had to admit he was a little bit nervous. Maybe he wouldn’t be so nervous, if this whole situation had happened before the whole fake-relationship had started. Back then Dagur had been simply a guy he had seen around the school and Heather’s brother. Now… now Jack didn’t feel like they were neutral to each other. He even had a feeling that Dagur hated him. And Jack couldn’t really blame him for that. Or at least kinda understood him.

Jack not only had taken Hiccup away from Dagur, but he also had hurt Heather. So yeah, if Jack was in Dagur’s shoes he maybe wouldn’t dislike Jack, but… okay maybe he would hate him too.

So yeah, the stress pounding inside his temple was reasonable.

Jack cleared his throat:

“Was it bad?” He asked, hoping that his voice sounded as normal as he wanted it to sound.

Dagur glanced at him, but returned his gaze at the car. He moved to the back wheel and kneeled. Jack stopped next to him.

“You brought the car at a good time. Few more rides and the tire would snap and roll away.” Dagur huffed and grabbed the wheel. He tried to move it. It spun a little in one direction, but gladly that was it.

“That is… not good.”

“You think?” Dagur mumbled and frowned. He grabbed a wrench from his belt and then tightened a screw.

Jack stepped closer.

“So basically what was wrong…”

Jack more or less understood almost everything from what Dagur explained. There were few places when he was lost, simple because he didn’t understood cars that much, but other than that he got it all.

All this time Dagur was pointing at places he was describing. At one point Jack had to crawl together with Dagur under the car, so the older teen could show him what they should check if something similar happen in the future.

After the explanation was done, Dagur turned to Jack:

“I’m going to lower the car. You need to drive for a sec around the parking lot, so I can check if everything is alright with it.”

As the teen said, the car was then lowered slowly to the ground. Jack stepped in and then drove in reverse out into the cold world outside. He made few circles around the parking lot, listening if the car was making weird noises and checking if the tire was holding strongly. All this time Dagur stood outside with him, in his dirty suit, observing Jack’s car.

After few minutes Jack returned and parked near the door directing them to the hall. He exited the car, locked it and patted softly the mask.

Dagur waited as Jack approached him.

“It looks like everything’s alright.” He stated. “Let’s go inside, so we can finish the rest.”

And with that the both of them returned inside the hall, not uttering any more words between each other.

Dagur walked to the man laying under the first car.

“Mister Crood, it seems everything is alright with the car.”

The man moved with a groan from under the car and stood up.

“Okay. Good job, Dagur.” Mister Crood said and patted the older teen on the shoulder. “Can you finish repairing the hydraulic system in this one?”

“No problem.”

The man nodded at Jack to show him that he wanted Jack to follow. Dagur in the meantime got on the ground and then disappeared under the car. Just like that, without even saying anything more to Jack.

He couldn’t really blame him.

Jack followed the man to the small room which contained table and three chairs. He sat on one and waited for Mister Crood to find needed papers. There were a lot of confusion around the insurance, but somehow Mister Crood managed to sort out the case. Jack honestly had no idea what should he do. If Mister Crood told him to pay in bananas, then he would probably did it too.

In the end Jack only had to pay one third amount of the normal payment. The rest would be covered by insurance. Or at least Jack supposed so?

Mister Crood hid the money in a small box and then turned to him.

“I hope everything will be alright with the car from now on.” The man said. “I wasn’t sure about leaving the work for him, but I guess I’m not getting any younger. Plus he really has talent in it.”

Jack turned to the window which allowed them to see the inside of the hall. Unfortunately Dagur wasn’t visible, as he still worked under the first car. Now Jack wasn’t sure whether he wasn’t doing it, so he could avoid looking at or talking with Jack.

“Has he been working here for a long time?” Jack found himself asking. But he couldn’t remember even one time when Heather had told him about her brother working somewhere. Jack would know, because his sister had mentioned Dagur sometimes.

“Three months, I think?” Mister Crood said, looking up at the ceiling and scratching his chin.

So not long after he and Hiccup had started fake-dating. That’s why he didn’t know.

“At first I was unsure about him.” The man said and then slumped down on the chair. “He had that everlasting pissed expression and I didn’t hear quite good rumors about him, especially as he repeated some years in High School. But he turned out to be a really hard working person.”

“I’m glad then.” Jack said.

It was true. He never really wished people bad. Or at least he really tried to not wish that. Maybe he didn’t like Dagur per se, but he still wanted him to have a decent life.

“Yeah, me too. It’s good sometimes to give people a chance.”

“That is true.”

“You know each other from school?” Mister Crood asked, tearing his gaze away from the working teen.

Jack massaged the back of his leg with the shoe of his other one.

“Uh, yeah.” Then he cleared his throat. “But we actually like never talked. Though I’m friends with his sister.”

“Heather, right?” Mister Crood interrupted.

Jack was honestly surprised that the man knew her.

“Yeah, Heather.”

“He talks about her sometimes. But God, it is hard to crack this boy open.” The man said, hitting his knee with a hand and laughing heartily at the end. “But it’s good. Not every person has to be open for everyone.”

Jack nodded. It was nice to know that Dagur had been talking about his sister. From what Jack had seen, their relationship wasn’t that good. Or actually, Jack rarely, really rarely, had seen the two of them talking normally.

And Jack was kinda curious what Dagur was talking about his sister. But somehow this didn’t seem like a thing he should interfere in, so he only thanked the man and walked out of the small room. He thought about going straight to the door, but he didn’t want to go without thanking the teen.

Even when it felt weird to do so.

Jack still approached Dagur hiding under the car and cleared his throat.

There was an audible sigh coming from beneath the vehicle and not soon after the dirty face of the teen emerged from it. He furrowed his eyebrows when he spotted Jack above him.

Yeah, they definitely weren’t on friendly grounds.

“What do you want?” Dagur snarled, quite displeased with Jack interrupting him. Or at least the white haired teen thought so, because Dagur really looked pissed.

“I just wanted to thank you? For repairing the car?” Jack slowly said, raising his hand and scratching the back of his nape. He knew he shouldn’t do it, but damn, the scary gaze was unnerving.

Dagur eyed him for few more seconds, before he scoffed.

“No problem.”

And with that he rolled back under the car.

That was a quick thanks. But what else did Jack expect? A small talk? Especially when Dagur was working?

Jack passed the teen and went out. With a small smile on his lips he got into his car. For a moment he wanted to take out his phone and message Hiccup about the discovery, but decided against it. Like not fully against it. He was going to do it. But after he will return home.

* * *

 

Hiccup checked the phone and then exhaled slowly through his nose. Conversations via phone were definitely horrible and he was terrible at them.

Today Toothless had looked very bad and unhealthy, so Hiccup had decided to call his vet to check if he had his clinic opened. Unfortunately the man had to go to a neighbor city to help with some kind of surgery and wouldn’t be back in town for the next two or three days.

Hiccup had tried not to get overly scared by that information. He had been just about to end the conversation and search for some other vets in the neighborhood, when the man had given him an address of his friend.

Hiccup had wrote the address down and decided to pay him a visit.

So here was Hiccup, with Toothless in a carrier, walking quickly through the suburbs of Burgess, hoping that the man would help him.

The new vet was a little bit further away from his usual one, but he was still close enough that he could go there by foot. Gladly. Stoick wouldn’t be back for two or three more hours and Hiccup didn’t want to wait so long. Maybe he was overreacting, but Toothless had been with him for ten years or so and he couldn’t stand seeing his best-bud in pain.

After almost half an hour or maybe more Hiccup was on the correct street. Or at least the phone was telling him so.

“We’re almost there, bud.” He said, lifting the carrier and looking at the cat inside.

Toothless glanced at him, opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Hiccup tried to smile reassuringly, blinked slowly to his companion and then resumed walking.

From few meters away he could see a white signboard with two pictures of adorable puppy and kitty. So he was on the correct street.

The name of the vet was covered by a thin layer of white, puffy snow.

Hiccup fastened his pace and in few minutes he was in front of the door. He opened it and walked in.

Inside, in a white, sterile room, there were a woman and a dog, sitting patiently beside her leg. When Hiccup entered, she lifted her face and welcomed him with a tired, yet kind smile. Hiccup nodded at her and then sat down on the other free chair.

He took out his phone and looked through his two new messages. He quickly answered Jack. He had informed him that he had planned to go to a vet with Toothless. Now Jack was asking if Hiccup knew what was wrong with Toothless.

Hiccup smiled under his nose, touched by the concern, even though Jack had never seen the cat, maybe only on photos Hiccup had showed him. That was sweet.

After that he answered Aster and pocketed his phone.

For few minutes there was silence, where Hiccup could hear a shushed talks coming from behind the door allowing people to walk further into the clinic. Few times he heard a barking sound, even few small meows and… a screech of a parrot? He wasn’t sure, but it definitely sounded like some kind of a bird.

The woman patted her dog on the head.

After few minutes the door opened and an old man with a big dog on a leash went out. He thanked the vet (whom Hiccup couldn’t see) and then turned to the woman.

“You can go inside.”

The woman nodded, got up and with her pet walked inside the room.

The old man put on a coat, nodded at Hiccup and then went out too.

Hiccup was left all alone in a waiting room. He moved the carrier, so he could peek inside of it.

Toothless curled in the back of the cage. He lifted his eyelids, but then quickly closed them. Whiskers moved delicately.

Hiccup waited for almost twenty minutes, before the door opened again and the same woman went out. The dog trotted slowly next to her leg, but the female was smiling softly under her nose.

“You can go in.” She said to him.

Hiccup stood up and corrected the hold on the carrier. He moved to the open door and walked inside the room.

Similar to the waiting room, this one also was pristine white. Almost in the middle stood a metal table with a giant lamp directed at it. The whole opposite side was covered with white shelves and cabins and rows of medicines. There was also another door, from which Hiccup could hear dogs barking and cat meowing. On the right from the entrance was a desk, a computer and a chair occupied by a man.

Hiccup blinked, taken aback.

The man lifted his head and two brilliant, curious, green as burning thallium* eyes stared at him. Mouth stretched in a tired, yet very kind smile.

“Hello, what seems to be the problem?” He asked, standing up and moving to the metal table. He grabbed a spray and a rag laying under it to clean it quickly.

Hiccup could swear he had seen the man somewhere.

“I got your address from Doctor Porter*. I wanted to visit him today with my cat Toothless…”

“Oh yeah, he told me he would be sending some patients to me.” The vet said, patting the metal surface softly.

Hiccup put the carrier down, opened it and took out Toothless. The cat meowed at him and tried to turn around, but Hiccup held him strongly – not to hurt, but to this point Toothless couldn’t run away.

“So what is the problem with this little guy?”

“He has been vomiting quite a lot nowadays and he doesn’t eat much.” Hiccup explained.

The man hummed and grabbed Toothless by the skin on his neck.

“He’s quite dehydrated…” He murmured, more to himself than to Hiccup. “Was he throwing up his fur?”

“Maybe the first two times. Later not so much.”

The man nodded. He moved and from one shelf took out a thermometer.

Toothless almost glared at Hiccup when his temperature was being checked. Hiccup wanted to say sorry to him, but held strongly. In few minutes it was done. Hiccup knew it wasn’t a comfortable process.

He petted Toothless’ head when the vet checked the thermometer.

“Oh, he has a slight fever.” The man stated. He cleaned the thermometer, hid it and then moved to the desk. “I need to register you here, so I can send what I did to Toothless to Doctor Porter.”

After that the man asked Hiccup typical questions like name, age of the cat, if he had any serious health problems in the past, if he was castrated. After that he also weighed Toothless and checked his gums.

“I think it’s some kind of inflammation.” The gray-haired man said, patting softly the cat. “When was the last time he ate?”

“Yesterday. Today he didn’t even touch a thing.”

“Okay, so I’m going to draw his blood.”

They laid Toothless down. The vet took out a syringe and two small vials.

“I can do it from one of his back legs, so gladly we don’t have to shave his fur.” The man said, smiling to Hiccup who only nodded in reply.

The doctor stretched Toothless’ leg and cleaned it with a swab soaked in alcohol. His little bud meowed at him and tried to move away, but Hiccup held him strongly in place.

“It’s for your own good, Toothless.” He whispered and kissed the top of cat’s head.

The vet commented it with a smile.

Toothless definitely didn’t like the process. When the needle pierced the skin, he meowed lowly, but gladly the doctor quickly managed to draw enough blood for two vials.

The man retrieved the needled and put a bandage around Toothless’ leg.

“Wasn’t so bad, right?” He asked as he stood up.

Toothless looked at him like the man just made the dumbest joke in the entire universe.

“I can make a quick test to see if he has any inflammation, but more detailed results will be tomorrow.” The gray-haired man said and then swirled one vial in his hand.

He walked to the door directing them even further into the clinic – or maybe to the house that was next to it – and disappeared behind it. After few moments Hiccup could hear that he called someone, but the name was drowned by a loud bark. Then after that came quick shushed talk and then the vet was back.

“We need to wait a little bit.”

“I don’t mind.” Hiccup answered.

While they waited the doctor searched through his office for some small pods filled with predicament. He explained to Hiccup that he should pour the inside of the capsule on food, on Toothless’ paw or just do it directly into his mouth – for five days straight.

Hiccup listened intently, noting every word inside his brain.

He liked this man. He was kind and knew what he was doing – immediately moving straight to the topic. Methodical, but with a spark – that would be a good explanation here.

After a while they both heard the door open and someone walked inside.

“You got the results?” The man asked, grinning to the person.

Hiccup turned around and blinked.

Aster was standing in the doorway with a sheet of paper in his hand. When he spotted Hiccup, his eyes widened, forming two round, big watch-glasses*.

“Oh, hey.” He finally said, in the usual kinda emotionless voice he so often used, but there was something friendly ringing at the end of this welcome.

“Hey to you too.” Hiccup said, patting himself on the back in his mind that he didn’t stutter. Good job him. He definitely had to get better at this.

The doctor looked between Hiccup and his son with a puzzled smile on his face and reaching out hand. Aster walked to him and placed the paper in his palm.

“You know each other?” He asked, not really directing this question to anyone specific in particular, just throwing it into aether*.

“Yeah, from school.” The taller teen said, glancing at Hiccup like he was searching for confirmation.

This was as good as they could get. Definitely better than _‘I’m fake-dating your son’s best-friend’_ or _‘I have a crush on your son’_.

The doctor looked at the paper with one hand tapping his chin. He swirled around on his chair and moved to the computer to put the results in.

Aster approached Hiccup.

“I didn’t know you were coming.” He said.

Hiccup felt ashamed of it, but he had to say the truth.

“To be honest, I didn’t know it was your dad’s clinic.”

Aster blinked and was just opening his mouth to comment it, but Hiccup was quicker:

“I only got an address from Doctor Porter and I didn’t have the time to check it. And the snow was covering the signboard above your house!”

“To be fair, I also forgot to put on my plaque after a break.” Aster’s father added, glancing at them for a brief second.

Hiccup felt like he was on fire – shaming fire sizzling in his muscles. He was sure there were windows or tabs – covered with red patterns – alerting errors inside his head. Damn, but until now he didn’t even really notice that he didn’t know the name of the vet. He especially didn’t think that he would met here Aster of all people.

Aster turned his head to his father. His shoulders slumped down and his mouth twitched, forming something similar to an amused grin. It was the most emotional façade Hiccup had seen on the taller teen’s face.

It was… nice to see.

The doctor stood up and moved to them.

“He has a little bit high level of leukocytes. I will give him an antibiotic.” After that the doctor moved and filled a syringe with translucent substance.

Toothless looked up at Hiccup with pleading eyes. Aster stepped closer – oh gosh, they were only around twenty centimeters away from each other – and patted Toothless’ head softly, scratching him under his muzzle after that. The cat tried to hold strongly and not succumb under the pleasurable pats, but he tilted his head a bit in Aster’s direction.

The vet walked to them and quickly injected the medicine into Toothless’ body.

“It wasn’t so bad, right?” He said, massaging the place he punctured few seconds ago. “You can put him back in his carrier.”

Toothless was never more glad to be back in the cage. Or at least he looked happy about going back inside.

“More detailed results we’ll have tomorrow, so you can call me around 9 am.” Then he lifted his face and probably noticed Hiccup’s grimace, even though he desperately tried to hide it. “Or you can ask Aster to do it. He’ll give you the results then.”

“Okay, thank you.” Hiccup nodded, stealing a short glance in Aster’s direction who surprisingly stared back.

“I think he’ll need another shot, but as I said more details will be known tomorrow. For now that is all.”

“Thank you. How much do I owe you?” Hiccup asked, reaching to his pocket and taking out a wallet.

Doctor Bunnymund walked to a small cash register and started to put some numbers. All this time he was murmuring something under his breath. But in few moments the receipt was in front of Hiccup.

Okay, the amount was reasonable. Even a little bit smaller than he anticipated.

Hiccup took out the correct amount of bills from the wallet and gave it to the man.

“Thanks.” The man said, accenting this word with high pitched, melodic tune. It kinda made Hiccup want to laugh, but he strongly only smiled in return. “I hope to never see this little bud and you again. I mean like not in the bad way, but in a good way. But if you ever want to visit then I’ll be happy to see you!”

“We get it, Dad…” Aster said, pinching the bridge of his nose and exhaling loudly.

Hiccup chuckled at that.

“Good!”

He grabbed the carrier and moved to the door.

“Good bye.”

“Bye!” The man waved at him. “Oh and call another person in, please!”

Hiccup nodded and went out. Surprisingly the door after him didn’t immediately close, like he expected them to do. Maybe simply because Aster followed him.

Inside the waiting room there was an old lady with a carrier. When she spotted Hiccup exiting, she stood up. He moved from her way and Aster held the door open, so she could walk inside without any problems.

Hiccup smiled under his nose. He didn’t take off his jacket, so he didn’t have to put anything on.

Aster closed the door after the woman and then stopped next to him.

Should they talk about something? Do some small talk? Hiccup was bad at those. He never knew what he should say. He couldn’t simply start talking about the weather! Ugh!

“You honestly didn’t know it was my dad’s clinic?” Aster suddenly asked.

Okay, yeah, great start, right away with embarrassment.

Hiccup hid his mouth in his scarf now hanging loosely on his neck.

“Really.” He mumbled.

Aster chuckled under his nose.

“To be fair you never told me that your dad is a vet!”

“I didn’t?”

Hiccup, of course knew Aster’s father was a vet. Not from the primary source, but from Jack. He had mentioned it once when they had been talking about pets. But somehow today Hiccup hadn’t connected the dots – because the chances of Doctor Porter giving him the address to Doctor Bunnymund weren’t that high. Plus Hiccup was worried over Toothless. He still was, but the man calmed him a little bit.

“Huh…” Aster hummed, scratching the back of his head. “I’m not used to talking about myself, so yeah, that could happen.”

“Me neither.” Hiccup looked at the teen, hoping that the grin which was on his lips was comforting and understanding. “So it’s okay.”

He could understand not wanting to share every personal information with people. He rarely liked to talk about himself. Neutral topics were okay, but personal… not so much.

The people who knew the most about his personal life were Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruff and Tuff (but a little bit less than the rest) and now… surprisingly Jack? They had talked a lot about their families, insecurities and dreams. With Jack it was easy to open a little bit, to let the fresh breeze into the dusty room of his usually closed mind.

But with others Hiccup was careful and didn’t particularly need to share his own story.

They walked to the exit. Hiccup was just about to open the door, but Aster was quicker and did it for him. To be honest, it was a little bit hard to open doors with Toothless’ carrier. He often had hit it on doorframes or doors while doing so.

“Thanks.” Hiccup said. He grimaced when he had seen and felt the outside world. Won’t the spring just come already!? “I’ll remind you tomorrow to call your Dad about Toothless.”

“Sure.” Aster nodded. His fingers tapped an uneven rhythm on the door’s surface. Well, Hiccup wouldn’t be surprised, if that was due to the coldness, as he now stood in fully opened doorway. “Keep safe.”

“Maybe I won’t fall in any pile of dirty snow, if that’s what you mean.”

“Not exactly, but when you mentioned it, keep safe from that too I guess?” Aster said, a ghost of amusement tugging on his cheeks.

Hiccup nodded.

“Bye.” He said, turning for a brief moment to glance at the teen and send him a small grin.

“See you tomorrow.”

And with that Hiccup went out to start the journey to his home with a little bit lighter heart than before.

Only after he was in the middle of the trip he noticed that something in today encounter had been off. Maybe not in the whole meeting – not words, tones, sentences, movements – but simply in Hiccup himself. Like there was one thing that had been missing and now he couldn’t really pinpoint what it was.

* * *

 

Hiccup was cozily secured on his chair in front of his laptop, watching the newest episode of his serial, when Jack wrote to him on Skype.

_Hey, hey, hey, guess who I met today at my mechanic!?!? :ooo_

He frowned, but stopped the video. His fingers quickly moved on keyboard, forming a response.

_I’ll take a wild guess and say that a mechanic?_

Hiccup only managed to watch maybe two more minutes from the episode.

_Wow, Hiccup plz never do a stand-up :///_

_Rude ): …_

_So who did you meet?_

_Wait can I call? It’ll be easier this way (´_ _･_ _ω_ _･_ _`)_

_Sure._

Hiccup was already reaching for his phone, expecting it to vibrate any second, only to look back at the monitor screen and find out that Jack called him on Skype.

That was new. However he clicked the green button.

For few seconds there were only static screeches coming from the headphones, but then after a while Jack’s clear voice resonated in his ears.

“Sorry, had to correct the mic.”

“No problem.” Hiccup said. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah. And you?”

Hiccup hummed in reply and switched tabs. Something was telling him that the new episode had to wait. Or Hiccup had to wait to watch it.

“Good. First – how is Toothless feeling?”

Hiccup blinked, but then grinned under his nose with heart hammering warmly inside his chest.

“Better. He got some shot for his inflammation and the doctor drew his blood, but tomorrow there’ll be more detailed information.”

“Oh, poor he. I hope he’ll be healthy quickly!” Jack moaned and Hiccup could really feel the emotions pouring from his mouth – that even thought he had never met Hiccup’s best friend, he was feeling sad about the cat’s bad well-being.

Maybe he should invite Jack’s over to meet his cat. And to introduce Jack to his dad, because well… Jack kinda deserved it as Hiccup had been way too many times at Jack’s house.

“Yeah, me too.” Hiccup glanced at Toothless who was laying on his bed, sleeping peacefully. “Now why did you call me?”

“Okay listen, because you won’t believe it!”

So Hiccup had to listen to the whole story about how Jack’s car had broken down and how he had to leave it there for few days. He had no heart to tell the white haired teen that he had already heard about it – or maybe he simply didn’t want to say it. Listening to Jack’s enthusiastic voice was strangely calming. Plus he sounded so energetic while telling the story that Hiccup got easily captivated by it.

(Maybe he had it after his mother?)

Hiccup quickly shook his head, trying to forget about the dinner with Eris.

Jack was moving to the peak of the story:

“And then… you won’t fucking believe me, Mister Crood called Dagur! Can you believe it? Did you know he has been working there?”

Hiccup blinked, processing the words.

“Wait, Dagur?”

“Yeah! And at first I was like _‘Whaaaat?’_ and then I thought that I need to call you to tell you that, but I couldn’t, then you weren’t picking up and–“

“I got it, I got it. I was at vet with Toothless.”

“Oh…” There was a sudden drop in Jack’s tone, so Hiccup quickly tried to get him back on the tracks:

“And?”

“Oh yeah. So I saw him there and our eyes crossed, and I swear, I was afraid he would kill me! But no, he was pretty decent and kinda polite even?”

Okay, okay, okay Hiccup was still processing this. Dagur? Working as a mechanic? After he had found that Dagur was quite talented in Robotics, the information that he was repairing cars wasn’t surprising that much. It sorta even fitted the older teen?

But, wow, the world was definitely small.

“Hiccup, are you there?”

He quickly shook his head.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. I was… surprised a little bit and was processing this information.”

“So you didn’t know?” Jack asked.

“No, not really. We don’t talk that much about our personal life… or like at all.” Hiccup concluded. Only during the last few tutoring sessions they had talked a little bit about Heather. Does it even count as talking about personal life?

“But I must admit he did a good work. The car is driving very smoothly, so kudos to him!”

“That is… really nice to hear.” Especially as Jack had told him, that when they had started fake-dating Dagur hadn’t been acting quite nicely towards Jack – pushing him into lockers and sending a death glare every few seconds.

So the change was really nice. Amazing even.

“Yeah.” Jack exhaled slowly through his nose. “Sorry, I had to tell you.”

“No, no, don’t apologize. I actually didn’t expect it.”

“Yeah, me too.” Then there was a short, hesitant inhale and quiet rustle of hair. Was Jack scratching the back of his head? “How are things between you two actually?”

Hiccup blinked and then moved away from the laptop, crossing his hands on his chest. He tapped one finger on his arm.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t call them good, but it’s not bad either. I can’t say for sure that Dagur stopped… hitting on me?” Could he even use this word like that? “But it kinda looks like that. Which is good! Really good!” Hiccup added quickly, smiling under his nose. He hoped that one problem was off his head.

“That’s amazing.”

Hiccup’s mouth stretched into a wider grin, only for it to drop, when one question popped into his mind.

“And how about you…” Damn, why his mouth was suddenly so dry? He wanted to clear it, but decided against it. “… you and Heather?”

For few seconds, desperate and strangely long seconds, Jack didn’t respond.

“We’re… fine, I think? I mean we weren’t really talking lately, only few small conversations on Facebook, but I think maybe we’re clear?”

It sounded like Jack was weighing the words, judging them, checking if they were the correct ones to use here. Yet he sounded unsure, hesitant, like something was tugging him from behind while he was speaking. An unnamed force pulling him into its own field.

That was an astonishingly good information. The coast was clear for the both of them. They reached the goal they had wanted since the very beginning.

So why couldn’t Hiccup force himself to ask this few words? Why was his heart beating so loudly inside his chest and ears, drowning all other sounds resonating and vibrating around him?

Because they should end it, right? They had kept the lie, the play long enough for them to gain what they wanted. So was it now the time to finish it? That should be the normal way to go.

This was what Hiccup had wanted since day one of this stupid plan.

So why thinking about it now was making Hiccup so uncomfortable? Why was his heart constricting and turning and pulling and twitching inside his chest? Was he afraid that if he break up with Jack, then Dagur will change again? That was a possibility.

However something, at the back of his head, was telling him that this wasn’t the case.

But if that wasn’t the case, then what other logical reason could there be? This was the only one. Hiccup had to be afraid of repeating the story they had had before the plan. This had to be the truth.

“That is… good.” Was the only thing Hiccup could force himself to say without stuttering too much and fearing of his chest failing him. Damn, maybe he was getting sick?

“Yeah…” Jack cleared his throat. And then it was like a change of frequencies – tuning the radio to different station. “Hey, do you know that girls’ bathroom isn’t as pretty as I thought?”

“What?”

“You know, girls always complain that our bathrooms smells, but actually theirs aren’t that pretty either. And I just, you know… Was kinda surprised about this fact? They also have graffiti on the walls. Plus the sink looks yucky, so you know, that was kinda weird.”

Hiccup blinked, shaking away the last particles of nervousness hanging onto his eyelashes. That was a very random way to change the topic. But it was Jack – and Hiccup decided that nothing about him could surprise him anymore.

“Jack, how do you know so much about the girls’ bathroom?” He asked, rising his one eyebrow and correcting the headphones he had in his ears.

“Uhm…” Jack chuckled hesitantly after that and it looked like he swirled on his chair in front of the computer. “I kinda was in one?”

“Jack, why were you in the girls’ bathroom!?”

“Eh, no reason?”

Hiccup sighed loudly.

* * *

 

Near 9 am Hiccup messaged Aster if he could call his dad later or message him. During the lunch break he and Astrid decided to ditch the school grounds to get to the fast food restaurant where Ruff, Tuff and Snotlout worked. Well maybe _ditch_ wasn’t a proper word to use here. They weren’t creeping around in bushes, searching for a hole in a defense of the school to jump and escape this prison. They simply walked out through the main entrance.

In the past few times some teachers had stopped them, but Astrid had weird and amazing talent of convincing teachers to not give them detention. Gladly today no one paid them any mind as they walked past the gate.

Today was pretty warm, even above zero degree Celsius, so the ground was covered in puddles and small streams going from higher places and disappearing in sewage grates.

“I feel like we weren’t there in forever.” Astrid said, taking off her hat and combing the few lone strands that escaped her braid.

“I feel like I didn’t see them in forever.” Hiccup added.

“Oh, that’s too.”

Which was true. Hiccup still talked with the rest of the gang more or less regularly on their group chat on Facebook, but he hadn’t seen them in like a month or so.

Gladly the fast food restaurant wasn’t too far away, and soon enough they were both walking in.

Tuffnut was behind the counter and was currently attending to a woman, but when he lifted his face to check who entered the restaurant his mouth formed a wide grin.

“Dude, what!? Oh my god! Ruff, come here you lazy ass!” He shouted, making the poor woman in front of him flinch. “Oh, sorry ma’am, here is your order.”

The woman thanked quickly and then exited the restaurant with head hanging low.

Hiccup and Astrid approached the counter.

“Hey to you too.” Hiccup said as Astrid looked through the glowing menu above the counter.

“Aw dude. You could have said you were coming. I would put on a cleaner apron.” The teen said, smiling giddily like he just received a Christmas present few days before actual Christmas.

It kinda made Hiccup really happy inside.

“You’re wearing the more clean apron, bro.” Ruffnut said, passing through the door leading to the kitchen.

She quickly walked around the counter and gathered Hiccup and Astrid in for a big, hard, painful and deadly hug.

“Aw I missed you so much, you stupid little shits!”

“Gee always welcomed here.” Astrid said, after she was able to break free from the hug. Ruffnut commented it with a chuckle and shoved Astrid’s shoulder, which the girl reciprocated.

“So what can I give you today? “ Tuffnut asked.

“I will have fries.” Hiccup said, glancing up at the menu. They were in the same price, gladly.

“And I’ll have a cheeseburger.” Astrid chirped next to him and then leaned conspiratorially to Tuffnut. “And add extra onions for an old friend of yours, will ya?”

The boy nodded.

“Snotlout is in the kitchen, so I think that can be done.”

They both paid and then waved at the twins, who promised to talk with them a little bit more when they’ll have a break.

When Astrid sat down and took off her jacket, she inhaled and exhaled loudly through her nose.

“Man I missed this place.”

It wasn’t the most perfect and tidy fast food restaurant in town. It wasn’t the worst, but it wasn’t the best either. The McDonald two streets away definitely had more customers than this one. However Hiccup still liked it. Maybe because his friends worked here, so this place got some kind of a domestic charm.

“Agreed.”

He himself took off his jacket, but first put the phone on the table. As he was sitting down, the screen lit up with a new message from Aster.

Hiccup quickly grabbed it and opened, hoping that it would contain more information about Toothless.

_Sorry for being late. The results are not_

_bad, but not good either. Toothless will_

_need a few shots. Should I tell dad that_

_you’ll be coming today or are you going_

_back to your old vet?_

Okay, so it wasn’t totally bad. It definitely could be worse, but Hiccup’s stomach still dropped, weighed down by something unpleasant – like it was suddenly covered or filled with cement or lime mixed with osmium or iridium (or both).

“What’s wrong?” Astrid next to him asked, reaching her neck so she could glance at his screen.

He had nothing to hide. He showed her his phone, so she could read the message. Hiccup had told her what had happened and who he had met at the other vet.

The girl quickly scanned the message.

“But it’s good, right? Few shots and Toothless will be healthy in no time.” She said, rising her eyebrow.

“I definitely hope so.” Hiccup said and then opened a tab to write a reply.

“Are you going back to Aster’s dad or back to Doc Porter?”

“Hmm, I don’t think Doctor Porter is back yet…”

“Are you saying that because you aren’t sure or because you want to see Aster?”

“Astrid!” Hiccup shouted, lifting his gaze. “Don’t think so little of me. Toothless is my main priority. I don’t care where I have to go, I just want him cured and fine.”

“Chill Hiccup, I’m just teasing you!” Astrid said, throwing her hand over his shoulder and bringing him in for a half, apologetic hug. His glasses moved, almost falling from the nose in the process.

“Food is coming right up!” Ruffnut shouted, exiting the door to the kitchen while holding two giant plates.

The aroma immediately hit Hiccup’s nose and made his mouth water. Maybe the restaurant wasn’t the best, but they got pretty darn good food.

The girl walked to them and put their food down. Astrid immediately reached for the cheeseburger, animalistic glint appearing in her eyes in the process to this point Ruffnut quickly retrieved her hands.

“Someone is hungry…” She stated with one eyebrow raised high onto her forehead.

“I didn’t eat breakfast. Overslept.” Astrid answered between monstrous bites.

“Okay. Understandable.”

Hiccup grabbed few fries and dipped them in the ketchup. The taste was still as good as he remembered it. Then he wrote a quick reply to Aster, saying that he would be coming today to his dad for a shot for Toothless.

“So what have you guys been up to?” Ruffnut asked, turning the chair and sitting on it so she could lean on the backrest.

“Shouldn’t you be working?” Hiccup asked, pushing the phone away and devouring another few fries. Damn, he was hungry. But Astrid already finished half of her cheeseburger.

“Tuff, I’m taking a break!” The girl shouted to her brother behind the counter.

“Hey not fair, I wanted to have one!” Her brother yelped, waving his fist at her and scaring some man who was ordering food.

“Too late!”

Ruffnut smiled, throwing one her braid on her back when they all heard Tuffnut loudly cursing under his nose. Yeah, how they still didn’t kick the twins out, just due to their language, was a mystery for Hiccup. But he guessed they worked good, so maybe the boss was letting some things slip.

“So how are things between you and Jack, my lil Hic?” Ruffnut suddenly asked.

“I don’t know, how are things between you and Eret?” Hiccup quickly shot back, smirking as he put food in his mouth and munched on it loudly.

Ruffnut’s eyebrow twitched.

“I asked you first!”

“I asked you second?”

“That makes zero sense!”

“I know. So will you answer me?”

The girl huffed and Astrid commented it with a small laugh. Only she choked on her food and Hiccup had to help her by patting her hard on the back.

“Things are fine, I think? We still talk, also went out a few times, so yeah… things are going good.” Ruffnut said, staring through the window of the fast food restaurant and absentmindedly playing with the second braid. She had a burnt spot on her palm, Hiccup noticed. Maybe she got it in the kitchen. “How about you and Jack? We didn’t hear about your loverboy for a long time. Is he still alive?”

Ugh, Hiccup avoided this topic. Talking about their fake-relationship usually brought more lies that had to be remembered later and Hiccup didn’t want that.

“Yes, he is. He is okay. We’re fine.” Hiccup said, almost robotically.

“Wow, so much emotions, so many feelings, wow, wow, wow!” Ruffnut said, waving her hands.

Hiccup lifted his eyebrow at that.

“What do you expect me to do? Fawn over him and squeak dreamily like a school girl?”

“Technically you’re a school boy, but yeah, that could also work.”

Hiccup and Astrid both lifted their heads at the new voice above their heads.

Snotlout was drying his hands on a cloth, which he then haphazardly threw over his shoulder. He made a scooting motion with his hands, then sat down next to Hiccup and stole a fry from his plate.

“Gee thanks. Still not gonna do it.”

“Ugh shame. I would record it and send to everyone I know.” The older teen said, smirking under his nose while eating Hiccup’s food.

Why did he even bother with them?

“Did you do anything for Valentine’s Day?” Ruffnut suddenly asked, looking at him.

Uh oh.

“Kinda?” Hiccup said, shrugging and quickly grabbing the fries Snotlout had been reaching for. He threw them into his mouth with a victorious smirk.

“Oh, so you fucked?”

And the fries were on the table, as Hiccup spluttered, stammered, coughed and desperately tried to take a deep breath when one fatal fry got into the tube in which it shouldn’t have gone.

Why were his friends such big assholes!

Astrid next to him cackled loudly, throwing her head back. Ruffnut high-fived Snotlout, who puffed out his chest proudly.

And Hiccup was still dying, now with hitting his chest quite hard to dislocate the food away from his throat and be able to finally breathe.

The girl next to him made a quick karate chop between his shoulder blades which hurt a lot, but gladly and finally helped him take a sweet, delicious, blissful inhale of the most amazing oxygen he ever had. Ruffnut, in the meantime, stood up and went to Tuffnut to take a cloth and clean the table, still snorting under her nose.

After a minute or so, in which Snotlout dared to finish Hiccup’s food without a care in the world, Hiccup was able to breathe more or less properly.

“So did you fuck or not?” The older teen repeated himself, smirking to him.

Hiccup was on the verge of choking Snotlout on the spot. With his own hands. Right there – dusting that stupid grin of his face and replacing it with a grimace of pain! Hiccup would be delighted to do all of that.

But instead he had to keep calm. Life was unfair.

“No, we did not.” Hiccup slowly said, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart, that had to learn to work properly again, after it literally had escaped death.

“Really?” Snotlout continued, prolonging this one word, probably intending to sound seductively, but it turned out just… lame.

“Really.”

“How can we know you’re telling the truth?”

“Uh, excuse me? I’m his best-friend. Of course, he would tell me about it and I know no juicy details!” Astrid next to him pipped up, cleaning her hand with a napkin. After that she glared at him. ”Right?”

Hiccup felt shiver run down his spine. Damn, did someone zap him?

“O-oh… yeah… totally!” Hiccup nodded vigorously. The look actually terrified him.

But to be honest he never really had thought about it. Both about sex and about telling Astrid if he ever… do something like that. Yet, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be embarrassed about the implications.

He wondered if Jack’s friends were also teasing him about it. Man, it was shameful, but Jack definitely was dealing with it better than Hiccup. He was too awkward not to blush furiously even at the small mention of…

No, not thinking about that! Nu-huh. No, please no!

“Meh, lame.” Ruffnut said and then yelped when she was whacked by her brother. “Ouch, why did you do that?”

“To get your attention. Now get back to work!” The teen said, crossing his hands on his chest.

“But I just got here.”

“Move. Now it’s my turn to spend some quality time with our friends.”

“What if I don’t move?”

“Then I’m going to accidentally kill your character in Tibia.”

Ruffnut’s eyes widened and muscles tensed.

“You wouldn’t dare!”

But Tuffnut only smiled in reply.

“Try me…”

“I’ll kill you.”

Tuffnut still stared at her with that daring look and smug smirk projected on his lips. His one eyebrow moved high onto his forehead and somehow this riled Ruffnut even more. Her cheeks turned red, but she swirled around on the heel to move to the counter, where two people already stood, waiting to be served.

“I knew that would break her…” Tuffnut chuckled under his breath.

So that was this modern blackmail, huh?

* * *

 

“And that’s a wrap. Didn’t hurt so much, did it?” Said doctor Bunnymund, flicking Toothless’ ear as he moved away on the chair with an empty syringe in one hand.

The cat looked like he wanted to disagree, but only leaned and licked the place which had been punctured few seconds ago.

The man threw the used syringe away and then moved to the computer to write the details down.

“Doctor Porter is coming back today, so tomorrow he should be in his clinic.” He said, turning to Hiccup. “I will send him my file and notes about Toothless, so tomorrow you can go straight to him.”

He nodded. Hiccup really started to like doctor Bunnymund, but he worked with Doctor Porter all his life. Plus his clinic was closer than this one.

“Thank you very much.” Hiccup said, after he paid the man.

“No problem. I hope this little fella gets better. He already looks healthier in my opinion.” The gray haired man said, looking into the carrier at the cat.

“He eats more too.” Hiccup added with a small, fond smile.

“That is good!”

And with that Hiccup thanked the man one more time and exited the clinic. In the waiting room he checked his phone, replied to Jack and only then finally went out.

The snow on the roofs was melting and falling down in form of tiny droplets. One particular cold one fell behind Hiccup’s scarf and he shivered at the yucky sensation. Only a month or so more of winter and then the spring will finally come.

He wondered if the lilacs he had given Jack will bloom. Galadriel and Thorin. To be honest, he was really surprised by the fact that Jack had come to like the trees so much. He had thought that maybe he would put them somewhere and wait till the spring to put them in the garden, but Jack had been taking really good care of them. Hiccup was really glad.

They both had hit jackpot with the presents. Hiccup also used Jack’s lab glasses. They weren’t the cheap one, so they weren’t getting easily scratched. Usually after one or two months Hiccup had to throw an old lab glasses away, but Jack’s one still looked brand new. Or almost brand new. Plus the little star on the side was making him smile whenever he looked at them.

“Hiccup!”

He blinked and lifted his head to look at Aster, who was standing in the doorway to his house.

“Uh, yeah?”

“Wait a second, I have to go to a pharmacy, so I’ll walk a bit with you!”

“Okay!” Hiccup shouted back.

And after that Aster closed the door to probably put on a jacket and shoes.

Hiccup waited for few minutes in the driveway, observing a lone stream of melting snow moving through the street. He wondered how fast it was going… Maybe if he assumed that his one step was around one meter and the he would put something light on the water, he could check the time and –

“Okay, we can go.”

Hiccup lifted his head and stared at the fully clothed Aster standing next to him. He smiled to the teen and then they both started to move in the direction of Hiccup’s house.

“How is Toothless feeling?” Aster asked, fumbling a little bit with the scarf that hung crookedly on his neck.

“Definitely better. He ate today and didn’t throw up, so that is a giant plus.” Hiccup answered, glancing down at the carrier. He tried not to move it too much, so the cat could rest a little bit, but it was probably impossible. He could only hope that Toothless wouldn’t feel cold.

“I’m glad then.”

“Me too. But he still needs four more shots. And he doesn’t look like he liked this one.”

Aster huffed or laughed. Hiccup wasn’t sure. The sound was disturbed by the thick scarf around the teen’s neck. Why he wore it when outside wasn’t so chilly was a mystery, but Hiccup decided not to ask. Maybe he liked to feel warm.

“I don’t like injections either.”

“They stopped being fun after they stopped giving us cool stickers.” Hiccup quickly said.

This time the sound which left the gray haired boy was definitely a laughter. Or a small chuckle. Either way, Hiccup managed to make the teen laugh.

It was nice to do so. It was also lovely to see the tiny, short wrinkles appear in the corners of Aster’s eyes, which closed down slowly after that.

“They almost never gave me stickers.” Aster finally stated, glancing at Hiccup, who touched his chest with his free hand.

“You’re joking? That was the best… or the only good part of being punctured.”

“Yeah. They usually only said that I was a very brave and strong boy.” Aster shook his head and a lone gray lock got glued to his forehead and nose. “I should have started crying. Maybe this way they would give me one.”

“Oh, I almost always cried, so yeah, that could be the case.” Hiccup said, remembering the times when he had been small and his big father had taken him to get vaccinated.

He remembered that he always had cried all the way to the clinic. Which was funny. Hiccup definitely had felt worse physical pains in his life afterwards, but back then it had felt terrible. Not to mention there was blood!

“So yeah, unfortunately no stickers for me. But my dad gave me lollipops afterward.” Aster murmured and stopped to check if any car was coming. When he found none, they crossed the street.

“The healthy ones which taste like shit?”

“Hell no. Fortunately, the normal ones. He always had few in his pockets.” Aster scratched his cheek. “He probably still has some with him. I once saw a cat steal one from him.”

Hiccup chuckled at that. A lone breeze flew past them and tickled his cheeks. It felt comforting and he could sense this specific smell of arriving spring. Just few weeks and the ground will turn into lush green fields.

“Maybe it only wanted the wrapper. Toothless steals receipts whenever he hear them.”

“That could also be true.”

And so they talked, moving smoothly from one random topic to another. It was different from the usual talks Hiccup had with Aster. They didn’t talk only about the topic which connected them – science – but about other unimportant things too.

It was similar to all the talks Hiccup had with Jack.

It was similar and yet it was totally different, both in the same time. And he felt that he was missing something, like there was one important small detail missing from his body, behavior or from the world, but he couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was.

Nevertheless Hiccup enjoyed himself and it looked like Aster also had fun.

When they were in front of Hiccup’s house, they said their goodbyes and Hiccup moved to his home with Toothless still moving around the carrier.

When he stepped inside and got rid of all heavy clothes, he freed his cat from the cage.

“Wasn’t so bad, right, Toothless?”

Toothless looked at him skeptically and meowed loudly.

“What? Doctor Bunnymund is a very nice man. Don’t you say one bad word about him.”

The cat swished his tail and then trotted to the kitchen.

Well…

Hiccup gave him food – a better one than usual, to treat him a little bit due to all the stress that had been put onto him. After that he moved to his room and flopped down on the bed, exhaling loudly through his nose.

Maybe he should sleep a little bit. Homework can wait.

His backpack vibrated loudly. Well, he could always ignore it, maybe it wasn’t important. Or maybe it was very important. Maybe it was Astrid asking for help, because she was being attacked in a dark alley and couldn’t make a call? Or one of his friends currently being robbed?

(Maybe it was Jack messaging him?)

Or maybe his favourite shop just sent him a message with coupons!

No, he had to check it.

Hiccup fumbled quickly with the backpack to fish out the phone from under a Geography book. Why did he bring it home in the first place? Ah yeah, test…

He unlocked the screen in a perfect synchronization with his heart jumping high in his ribcage, almost reaching the throat and –

– No, it was a message from Astrid. Gladly, she wasn’t in any danger. She only sent him a picture of her laying down on a bed filled with notes and a crying emoticon.

It wasn’t Jack. He still didn’t respond to the last message from almost an hour ago.

The heart, which suddenly had leaped, started to slow down, returning to normal heart beat standards.

Hiccup answered Astrid and then moved the phone away. He took off his glasses, put them on a nightstand and then closed his eyes.

He was on the verge of dozing off for few minutes, when something clicked inside his head. Like two pieces of a puzzle. Like a button being pushed.

He had been calm, all his walk with Aster he hadn’t stuttered or even felt that nervous. Well he still had been a little bit stressed, but it was the normal amount of stress his body produced while talking with someone Hiccup knew, but not knew that well.

That never had happened whenever he had been around Aster before. Was he finally getting used to it?

Or were there other reasons behind it?

* * *

 

“… mister Overland…” Professor Pitch lifted his face from the sheet of paper with grades from last week homework and then directed his scrutinizing gaze immediately at him.

Jack stopped breathing for a second.

“…C–…”

_Praise the sun!_

He exhaled slowly through his partially opened mouth and then felt a sudden urge to lie down his head, which had started to hurt (probably from stress). The fingers relaxed slowly and Jack had found out he had been clenching his fists quite painfully.

But he got a C from his homework. Well yeah, it had the _minus_ part there, but it was still C! A pretty good grade in Jack’s case. Astonishing even. Well of course Aster got A and Tooth B–, but wow!

Jack’s hand twitched. He wanted to write to Hiccup and tell him the good news, but he knew better not to do that, especially during Math. Almost every other subject was okay, but not Math. Especially with Professor Pitch’s lustering gaze following Jack’s every movement. Like seriously, Jack felt like he was his least favourite student.

Maybe because he once had put chocolate on a chair on which Professor had sat later on, which had resulted in quite eruptive laughter coming from everyone who had passed the teacher and had seen his back later.

The detention after that maybe would be worth it, if Professor Pitch didn’t simply hate him since then. Well, it was a price that needed to be paid.

But lately the black haired man hadn’t been so keen on destroying Jack. Maybe because Jack had started to learn a little bit for every class and had done his homework regularly. He still wasn’t good in math, but some exercises had stopped being a torture. But he was still far away from enjoying them, if that was even possible.

After Professor Black destroyed some people’s moods with the information about their grades the class went by normally. Jack tried to listen and understand what was happening around him (yet still questioning himself why was he here in the first place), but _hey!_ he managed to answer one of Pitch’s question. The fact that he couldn’t answer the next two didn’t matter, because he had never ever previously answered right during Professor Black’s classes.

Even the teacher was surprised, but the man quickly shook his head and returned to teaching the class. But of course, when the lesson was almost finished, Professor Black magically pulled out three pages of homework from who know where.

Everyone groaned.

When the bell rang, Professor Black stood in the doorway to give everyone the papers.

Maybe if Jack was slow enough, he wouldn’t get one? Maybe the man didn’t make enough copies, so if he was the last one to leave then…

And, no, he still had one copy when Jack, the last one standing, was moving to the exit. Professor Black’s mouth even stretched into a smirk when he saw Jack slowly shuffling to him, with the backpack thrown over his shoulder haphazardly.

“And here’s your copy, mister Overland.” The man said, pushing the paper into Jack’s hands.

“Thank you, sir.” Jack answered robotically.

His eyes moved over the first few questions. Okay, they didn’t look that bad. Maybe he won’t have so much problems with them.

“… it shouldn’t be that big problem for you.”

Jack lifted his head at the teacher, blinking to bring his mind back from the far away land of planning his free time.

“Pardon?” He asked. Shit, he wasn’t listening and the man had said something to him.

“I said that your grades improved after you stopped making those childish pranks of yours.” Professor Black repeated himself, but much slower – like he was explaining something to a child – with a mischievous and kinda evil glint flashing at Jack from behind those black eyes.

And Jack didn’t know how the answer, but he felt a giant pang of hurt piercing right through his chest. W-what?

“See you in two days, Mister Overland.” The man said, pushing Jack almost out of the classroom and closing the door after him to probably enjoy few minutes of calmness and tranquility without annoying students.

Jack looked at the door to the classroom and then back at the papers in his hands. That was true. He hadn’t made a prank in like… forever ( _few months, give or take_ , added his brain). And it was true that his grades were a little bit better, but that wasn’t because he had stopped doing pranks.

But they were the whole epitome of Jack. They were what had made Jack so likeable. They were what had made Jack so famous.

Without them was Jack really the _Jack_ whole school knew and loved?

He knew it was stupid, maybe childish, or maybe even unreasonable, but that one sentence haunted him for the whole day. It was scratching messages of the same words over and over on the wall of his consciousness. It was replying the words on a transistor radio again and again in grumbly, static mess.

Jack needed to change that.

Even Tooth had said that Jack was getting old. Was he getting old? Well, of course he was, the time was moving and Jack was getting older and older with every passing second, minute, hour. But was he getting that old to not be able to prank someone?

Was he not able anymore to do what had made him the _Jack_?

* * *

 

"So what did you want to talk about?” Astrid asked, sprawled over on her stomach on Hiccup’s bed and looking through the homework spread in front of her.

Shit, how did she know Hiccup wanted to talk about something?

“You can’t hide anything from me Hiccup…” Astrid continued, looking at him with a victorious grin. She tapped her cheek with a pen, but Hiccup had a feeling she wanted to poke her temple. “I know you for too long!”

He groaned and pushed away the notebook. He turned around on his chair and faced her friend.

“Okay, I need to talk with you about something…” Well or about two things, but Hiccup still wasn’t sure about the second one.

“ _Hit me with your best shot_ , bad boy.” Astrid said, glancing down at her notes and scribbling something really quick.

Hiccup took a deep breath and then dropped the bomb.

“Do you think me and Jack should break up?”

“What!?”

Okay, the shriek leaving Astrid’s lips was definitely too loud for his ears and for few seconds Hiccup could still hear a long beeping sound resonating inside them. Wow these frequencies really, really hurt him.

“Ouch, Astrid, a little bit quiet.”

The girl scrambled to sit up on the bed and stare at him with wide eyes.

“Why would you want to do that?”

Okay, Astrid was taking it bad. Way worse than Hiccup had anticipated. But to be honest he hadn’t thought she would act like that! Maybe surprised? Yeah, definitely that. Maybe even a little bit saddened by the information as it looked like she and Jack were on quite good terms, but definitely not like that. So… furiously.

To say that Hiccup was taken aback would be an understatement.

“’Cause you know… Dagur kinda left me alone and it looks like Jack and Heather are on good terms now, so you know I started thinking that it was time… to finish this… play?” Hiccup said, feeling that with every word the strength and certainty he had felt before was slipping away from his body. Or maybe it was just being crystalized in this sudden cold temperature inside Hiccup’s body and washed away with the stream of his blood.

His hands moved, making weird maneuvers, circles, triangles, squares and even deltoids in the air, only to finally be clasped together while pointing at Astrid hesitantly.

Astrid stared at him with eyelids dropping slowly. She wasn’t as surprised as she had been few second ago, but the bewilderment was still visible in the dimples near her mouth. But now her gaze was calculating – Hiccup had no doubts that there were tons of crazy thoughts, swirling and mingling, dancing, tangoing inside her brain – it felt like she was planning something, maybe future words or simply the future that was just around the corner.

Hiccup wasn’t sure about this too. It was just a thought that had clung to him and hadn’t wanted to leave him alone. Like a very irritating glue after a sticker was peeled off.

It was a logical way to solve their problems and end the plan. So why something in Hiccup didn’t want that? What was his stomach squirming whenever he thought about finishing it? Why was he hesitant about ending it all?

Was he afraid of Dagur returning back? Was he scared that Jack would never talk with him again after that, if they end it? No, Jack wasn’t like that. He definitely wouldn’t cut all connections with Hiccup.

But Hiccup’s breath still hitched.

“Are you sure this is the best solution here?” Astrid finally asked, arms slowly slumping down, relaxing the tensed muscles there.

Hiccup blinked. He should be honest with her. She definitely will know what to do in this situation.

However it was still kinda embarrassing.

“That is the case.” He admitted. “I’m not really sure about it…” Astrid was opening her mouth to interrupt him, but Hiccup continued. “I just thought it was the logical thing to do here, when the situation around us is stable.”

“Okay.” Astrid finally huffed and then she mumbled something under her breath, something that strangely resembled ‘ _this is no good_ ’, but Hiccup wasn’t sure. “Okay, so this is the logical part of your brain that is telling you this.” Astrid combed her hand through her blonde hair. “But tell me Hiccup… what do _you_ want?”

Him?

“I don’t think I should really think about myself right now. This plan include two people, so I shouldn’t–“

Astrid groaned and swung back on the bed. She didn’t fall down, but sprung back like a an oscillating molecule in a stretching vibration to look at him with this kinda annoyed gaze.

“So amuse me then, if that’s easier for you. What do you want Hiccup?”

What did Hiccup want?

He wanted to have a peaceful life. He didn’t want a life filled with adventures, he didn’t want to be famous, he loved his small group of friends, he loved his family and this was what he wanted from life. To be able to live like that for as long as he could.

He felt calm right now. At first, when they had started dating ( _fake dating_ , added a reasonable part of his mind) Hiccup had been afraid – of everything – of the future, of how will they manage to play their roles in the play, of how will his close friends react. And yeah, the attention during the first few days had been terrible, nerve-wracking and impossible to live with. But with time the whole _boom!_ around their secret relationship had smoothened out. People had stopped peeking at Hiccup curiously, searching for _something_ in his face, or eyes or whole behavior – even now he could only speculate what it was. Maybe they had searched for this special _something_ that had stolen Jackson’s heart away. Little did they know.

Even Hiccup’s friend had stopped their teasing. Or at least they had softened it. They had stopped mentioning it in every message, only now jokingly bringing it up from time to time.

Now, when the whole world around them stilled, came to a halt, calmed down the waves rippling through them, Hiccup simply felt… content. And… and happy. Yeah, it was the joy sparkling in his mind – balancing dopamine, oxytocin and above all, the most important here, serotonin.

So what did exactly Hiccup want?

If he had to be honest, like really, really honest, and also selfish (unfortunately it had to be added here, like some kind of constant of integration) then Hiccup had to admit one thing.

He didn’t want to finish it.

_(ba-dum)_

But he couldn’t look at what he wanted. They can’t keep it up just because Hiccup felt comfortable. Maybe… Maybe Jack wanted to finish it… Maybe he found a girl or a boy whom he started to like and wanted to ask out!

**_(ba-dum)_ **

That was a possibility! Even though if something like this happened, then Hiccup hoped Jack would tell him about it.

_(bad-dum)_

Jack definitely wouldn’t hide something so important from Hiccup, right? He knew about Hiccup’s crush! Accidentally, of course, but...

But…

“Hiccup?” Astrid asked, tilting her head.

How long was Hiccup roaming around the maze of his thoughts? Long enough that his friend got concerned apparently.

“I’m alive.” He quickly answered, lifting his hand and massaging his eyes groggily and lifting his glasses in the process.

“Good, that is good to know.” The girl nodded. “So?”

Ugh, there was no chance of Astrid dropping this topic. But yeah, Hiccup had asked her to come to his house, so he could talk about it with her. It would be stupid not to answer her right now.

“And be honest!” Astrid quickly added, seeing his inner struggle that apparently wasn’t as inner as Hiccup wanted it to be.

He sighed slowly.

“But promise me you won’t laugh okay?”

“I won’t promise, but I’ll definitely try.” The blonde haired girl said, staring at him curiously and maybe even hopefully.

Good enough answer in Hiccup’s opinion.

“Okay, so…” Hiccup started, only to grab the hem of his sweater and twist it in his hands. “Actually I don’t really…” Okay, one deep breath to calm his staccating heart. “I don’t want to finish it actually? Is… is it weird?”

“Not if you give me an explanation.” Astrid concluded, crossing her legs in front of herself and swinging back and forth now. “Why don’t you want to end this?”

Hiccup bent his one leg, put his chin on the knee and wrapped his hands around it.

“I don’t know. The situation between us makes me calm, I guess. I like what we have now. And I know, at first I thought that this was the worst decision of my life, but now I don’t think so?” Gosh, Hiccup couldn’t describe what he was feeling, even when he was speaking with Astrid. But he always had problems with trying to show what he was feeling. The words, sentences didn’t come naturally to him as it did for some people. It took a lot of strength to at least, more or less clearly, show what his brain was thinking about. “I mean, I simply feel content now. No one is pestering me. Well of course twins and Snotlout could stop with their teasing, but it’s not that bad. Plus…”

“How about Jack? What role does he play in it?”

“Jack?”

What about Jack?

“Yeah.”

“I like him. He makes me… not stressed over every small thing?” Hiccup groaned and hid his mouth behind his knee. “I don’t know, he simply makes me happy, I think?”

Astrid’s mouth stretched in a wide smile.

“Happy like you know–“

“Not like that!” Hiccup quickly shouted, feeling heat raising to his cheek, painting it in red smudges, scattered all over his freckled cheeks.

The heart shuddered in his chest and then his stomach trembled. Hiccup didn’t like Jack like that! He definitely didn’t. Nu-huh… He didn’t…

_Like Jack that way…_

Because if he did then that would be… disastrous. No, they hadn’t agreed on _no feelings_ per se, but no, Hiccup simply couldn’t let that thought in. He had to hide it somewhere, lock it down in a dark place, so it could be wiped away with the flowing time.

“Ugh shame.” Astrid said, but this something evil and kinda joyful didn’t leave her façade. “So anyway, after you poured your heart out like a schoolgirl–“

“I didn’t!”

“Yeah, yeah, drama queen.” Astrid waved her hand. “But the answer is simple. If you don’t want to finish it, then don’t do it. Unless you have a valid reason.”

Hiccup bit his bottom lip.

“But how about Jack? What if he does want to break this thing up?”

“Then he will definitely tell you about this.” Astrid quickly said. “You know him more than me and I know that, so you should too.”

Hiccup mulled the idea over in his brain for few seconds. He stared at it from different angles, he disassembled it and then put it back together in three different ways. But no matter how he did that, what kind of different lenses he put in his imaginary microscope, the results were always the same.

Jack definitely would tell him if he wanted to finish it.

“You’re right…” Hiccup finally said.

“See? It wasn’t so hard. You didn’t even need my help, though I’m flattered you asked me about it. And talked with me.”

Hiccup wasn’t so sure about that. He needed Astrid. He himself couldn’t connect all the dots, he couldn’t combine all results in more or less coherent conclusions. Astrid was like a rudder, tilting Hiccup’s way of thinking in the direction of the correct roads.

“You know that’s not true. I’m miserable without your normal way of thinking.”

Astrid shrugged, but Hiccup could see that she was happy after his compliment.

“Is that all?” The girl then asked, looking at him from a different angle. “Or do you want to talk about something more before we jump into this fascinating homework?”

There was one thing that Hiccup wanted to talk about. Astrid was in a good mood today, he kinda also was, so maybe it was be the best moment to nudge this topic with a glass rod.

Hiccup bent his fingers in different directions, hearing them snap and crack with small sparks of satisfaction bouncing like photons inside his mind.

“Actually, there is something else too…” He started, almost to be immediately interrupted by Astrid.

“I knew it. I can see it in your eyes! So what is it?”

Hiccup glanced at her.

“Are you procrastinating on your homework by talking with me about my problems?”

“Is that what has been bugging you?” Astrid shot back, rising her eyebrow.

“No, of course, not.” Hiccup shook his head. “But it’s a little bit concerning.”

“Of course it is concerning for a person who never procrastinated.”

“I procrastinate sometimes!”

The blonde haired girl looked at him emphatically.

Okay, come on, what was wrong with wanting to have everything done quickly? This way Hiccup didn’t have to worry about it later – the day before, where most of the students only started to open the book or even started to consider doing it. Plus at this point he kinda had a timetable of his daily life and he knew what was happening around him! He liked the stability doing homework or learning methodically was giving him.

Hmm… yeah, that was kinda nerdy.

“Yeah, right.” The girl prolonged this one word, curling her lips softly at the end. “But if you insist, I will make this homework while listening to you, so you won’t accuse me of procrastination.” Astrid continued, bringing the notebook onto her lap and grabbing a pen.

She started to write something down, but for Hiccup it looked like a bunch of random scribbles.

Okay, so Hiccup wasn’t sure how to start this topic. It was kinda or almost totally embarrassing situation for him. But something had been bugging him since the last time he had seen Aster and it had been resonating in his mind after that. Some kind of doubt. Some kind of hesitation. And Hiccup needed someone who wouldn’t sell his secrets away.

Fishlegs wouldn’t help him here too as love problems didn’t interest him. Well maybe only love problems in _Mass Effect_ or _Dragon Age_ interested him, so yeah, he had to be scratched off the list.

“How do you…”

“Hmm?”

“How do you know you don’t like someone anymore?” Hiccup asked quietly, looking at the floor beneath his chair.

“You just don’t like them then, I guess?”

Hiccup grimaced. Yeah, he could voice it out differently.

“No, Astrid. Not _like_ like that.” Well, this was getting them nowhere, so Hiccup collected the last rotating molecules of bravery he had in his heart and simply stated. “How do you know you don’t have a crush on someone anymore?”

Astrid blinked, taken aback. It looked like she didn’t expect that kind of a question. There was some hesitation sparkling in her eyes – like sudden burst of light during Grote and Krekeler method*.

“But not having a crush and starting to love them or not having a crush and not harboring any romantic feelings?” She then slowly asked, hand twitching around her ankles.

“Uhm, the second one.” Hiccup mumbled, looking down at this knee.

Oh a loose thread. His fingers started to tug it, hoping that he could rip it off.

Hiccup knew that Astrid would connect the dots. Or maybe he simply wanted her to connect them, he wanted her to add the information in her head and come with the same conclusion as him.

Astrid stared at him and then asked:

“Is it about Aster?”

Bingo.

Hiccup hid his mouth behind knees and nodded.

For few moments there was silence between them, with Hiccup still trying to get the thread off, but only managing to break it in three. He scowled under his nose and turned around on his chair to grab the scissors form the desk only to catch a glimpse of Astrid’s face.

She was smiling. A radiant grin was stretching over her pink lips and she looked totally overjoyed and enthusiastic about something. But when Hiccup looked at her one more time, the smile was gone, without a trace of it even being there. Did he just imagine it?

Was he getting delusional? Was he getting crazy?!

Hiccup cut the thread off and then looked back at Astrid, who cleared her throat and started speaking:

“Soooo… why are you thinking that?”

Hiccup collected all the information, memories, tics, movements (or the lack of them) from the previous few meetings and combined them all.

“I don’t know… I don’t feel so giddy around him anymore? I mean, I like spending time with him and I like him as a person, but all my emotions around him are so… dulled nowadays.” He murmured. “And I don’t know what to think about it…”

Astrid crossed her hands.

“I think you want to label too many things in your life.”

“Pardon?”

“Yeah…” Astrid nodded, this time more to herself than actually to him. “You always need to have everything portrayed in black and white. Like either something is good or bad, or you are this or that. Even now you want to categorize it – either I like him or don’t like him. But what if it isn’t just white and black, but simply gray?”

“I don’t think I get you…”

Astrid’s mouth twitched.

“I just want you to… wait a little bit? Maybe you’re simply now in the gray zone and you don’t know what color will come from this gray scale.” Astrid tilted her head. “Don’t put labels on things you’re not sure of yet, because you may hurt yourself later. Or better – don’t put labels at all and let your heart do the rest.”

“Are you the same Astrid that ate tar when we were kids?” Hiccup asked, actually impressed by her friend. And quite proud.

“Totally. I just happen to sometimes say something smart.”

“You’re the smartest person I know.”

“My grades don’t say so.” Astrid quickly said, tilting her head.

Astrid’s grades weren’t bad actually, they were… probably mediocre. From some classes they were better and from some they were worse – and it was normal.

“Grades don’t measure intelligence. They just measure how much you can learn by heart for an exam, which I think is pretty dumb, but hey, I can’t change the education system now.” Hiccup said, shrugging. “So I think you are very intelligent and smart and your grades have nothing to do with it.”

“Aww it’s the nicest thing you said to me in a pretty long while.” Astrid cooed sweetly at him, grinning from ear to ear. There was a soft hint of pinkish smudge painted over her nose and cheeks. Was she embarrassed? “But thanks, I really… appreciate it.” She added after a while, eyes jumping away to look at the quilt and scribbled notes in front of her.

Hiccup smiled under his nose, feeling happy with himself. He didn’t compliment his friends that often. He always thought that they knew he liked and thought highly of them. But every person sometimes have doubts, they have good and bad times – when the voices inside their heads whisper dirty little lies behind their ears. And they know they aren’t true, but sometimes it’s really hard.

Hiccup had bad times. Astrid… the strong Astrid had them too.

Hiccup didn’t say it often that he cared for his friends. That he thought they were amazing. But now, when the words so naturally had spilled from his mouth, he was happy that he had done that.

Because the smile stretching over his friend’s lips and the happiness sparkling in her eyes were one of the most astonishing things he had seen in his entire life.

 

**Author’s note:**

 

And as always answers:

Toffyy – I would take it too <high-five> xD!! Hohohoho who knows, who knows xD!

kew2759 – I am! xD! I can’t wait for it too! And maybe soon it will happen (definitely we are now closer than before! xD)! I was planning some scenes even before I started writing this story! xD But yeah… I kinda understand Jack, I feel really bad when people buy me expensive gifts D:! Like whyyy D:? (But come in, this is a console! Jack D:!) Hope you enjoyed this update too! =D

Lua Bruma (Turquesa) – Omg I’m so happy =D!! Yeah, even I’m now like ‘just kiss already!’ xDDD

FandomSupporter15 – Dude, I know I said it already on tumblr, but the cover was soooo amazing!!!!!! I loveeee itttttt! I could die from happiness right now!!! You are super talenteeeeed!! =DDD Yoo I know BMC… I mean I only saw the first act and then I listened to the recording, but yeah I hope it still counts xD! I think I got into musicals after I started Negative Delta xD But the soundtrack to BMC is good ( _Michael in the Bathroom_ is so amazing), but I first saw Dear Evan Hansen and it will be forever in my heart xD. But coming back to the story – it is actually so hard to make a happy ending for every character, so yeahhhh…  <looking away>. But Hijack will happen… eventually xD. And to answer your question about Dagur – yes, I will try to explain it near the end actually, in a scene I really want to write. And about Stoick – yes and he only knows Jack and Hiccup are friends =D. No worries, I love long comments =D!

Derpy_Dorky – Huehuehuehue yasss, drama definitely will be coming xD Probably very slowly, knowing my way of writing xD. Aww thanks! I hope you’ll have an amazing day!

HisLadyshipTheFangirl – Oh my gosh, thank youuu ;___;! It really means a lot! I’m so happy, as I rewrote the scenes with her D:!

blitz_lili – Ah yes! But how can I say otherwise when I feel like every chapter is worse than the previous one D:! Omg, but Astrid is in this chapter! I’m so glad you like her, I have such a blast writing her actually xD. And well… soon we will have more scenes with Stoick and Jack! Omggg, now I’m really curious if we have the same ideas about Aster and Dagur! xDDD No prob! Hope you liked this chap too!

Mad – You made me so happyyyyy ;___;! I’m waiting for this moment too actually haha! xDD

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally publishing this one! You know what is coming, right? Omg, I don’t like this chapter much, but meeeh… too tired to correct it! D:
> 
> And hey, tell your friend or a family member something nice. Who knows? Maybe you’ll make their day :).
> 
> And some science and nerdy facts:  
> *Burning thallium – it burns with this very bright green color =D!  
> *Watch-glasses – it is a circular concave piece of glass used in chemistry as a surface to evaporate a liquid, to hold solids while being weighed and etc..  
> *Aether – it is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.  
> *Burst of light during Grote and Krekeler method – I don’t remember much from it, but I remember that this experiment was giving this bright light while being heated! =D  
> *Doctor Porter – a character from Tarzan.
> 
> See ya later! I hope you'll have an amazing day!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed it! :3


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